Sports
Weerakkody speaks on Amasha’s prospects and sharing coaching knowledge
Amasha de Silva reached her personal best when she clocked 11.55 seconds to win the women’s 100 metres at the National Athletics Championships. (Pix by Kamal Wanniarachchi)
by Reemus Fernando
Sprint coach Sanjeewa Weerakkody who trained Amasha de Silva to clock 11.55 seconds in the women’s 100 metrres at the last week’s National Athletics Championship believes that a culture of sharing knowledge among local coaches should be promoted to bring the best out of track and field athletes.
While stressing on the importance of insisting on local knowledge, Weerakkody reckoned that obtaining foreign expertise to fine tune coaching knowledge through workshops here would be more beneficial than sending athletes and coaches for foreign training.
In an interview with The Island on the sidelines of the 98th National Athletics Championship, Weerakkody said that the 98th National Athletics Championship has proven that it was finer points of coaching applied with the local knowledge that were behind the success of athletes.
“The knowledge that I obtained at the coaching workshop conducted by the Sri Lanka Schools Athletics Association in January 2020 went a long way in getting my athletes to where they are now,” said Weerakkody who has been in the field of coaching since 2002.
Couple of sprinters coached by Weerakkody reached their personal best performances during the National Championships. Amasha clocked 11.55 seconds to reach her personal best in women’s 100 metres. Chamod Yodasinghe who clocked 10.58 seconds to be placed fourth in the men’s 100 metres also reached his personal best, while emerging multidiscipline athlete Lakshini Dissanayake was the winner of the heptathlon,.
Weerakkody was among dozens of local coaches who attended the coaching workshop conducted by former World Athletics coaching expert Gunter Lange in Galle in 2020 and he is also one of the few local coaches who had witnessed drop of performances of their athletes following foreign training.
“When Amasha returned from Australia after a training stint, there was a drop in her performance. She had clocked a personal best of 11.71 seconds in Gifu Japan in 2018 but there was a drop of form during the following year. It took time to bring her back to reach her personal best again. The knowledge I gathered at the workshop conducted by the Sri Lanka Schools Athletics Association and the online lectures I attended thereafter helped me guide her. I would recon such workshops rather than sending athletes for foreign training,” said Weerakkody.
“One can gain knowledge by going overseas for coaching courses. But if experts can be brought here for coaches to attend training or to be guided by them that will be more economical and productive,” opined the coach.
“I would also recommend emerging coaches to go for research based education and invite coaches to share knowledge to improve standards. We should promote a culture where coaches share their knowledge rather than keeping it to themselves,” said Weerakkody who is optimistic of further improving the standards of his trainees.
Weerakkody has identified areas including nutrition that has to be looked into for Amasha to achieve high performance.
Speaking on Amasha he had this to say: “She was not a top national athlete during her junior years. Now only she is ready for high performance training. She has the potential to be among the top Asian athletes of her discipline and even to brush shoulders against world’s top athletes one day.”
Olympian Yupun Abeykoon’s 60 metres Indoor National record is among several national indoor records under threat when Sri Lanka’s top sprinters vie for honours at the World Indoor Athletics Championships in Nanjing China from today.
The country’s athletes do not get many chances to take part in indoor competitions. Most of the current national indoor records are owned by athletes who were based in Europe or USA when the records were established. Italy based sprinter Abeykoon established the current national indoor 60 metres record of 6.59 second in 2021.
With a world class field around him and a faster track providing support Chamod Yodasinghe is looking forward to improving his personal best (6.63secs) which is just four milliseconds behind Abeykoon’s national record. “Events in the magnitude of World Championships are conducted on tracks that support faster performances. We look forward for several record breaking performances,” Yodasinghe’s coach Sanjeewa Weerakkody told ‘The Island’ before the team’s departure to Nanjing.
Weerakkody is also the coach cum manager of the Sri Lanka team for Nanjing.
Former Royal College hurdler Kaveesha Bandara is the current national record holder in the 60 metres hurdles. His outdoor record mark of 7.80 seconds is faster than Chaminda Fonseka’s 1998 indoor record of 7.90 seconds.
Similarly Kalinga Kumarage too will be eager to lower legendary Sugath Thilakaratne’s indoor record mark of 46.70 seconds.
With this competition offering high points for top performances all three will be aiming at improving their rankings as well in a World Championship year.
The men’s 4×400 metres indoor national record is another record that is under serious threat. The current national indoor record of 3:11.29 established at the Asian Indoor Championship in Macau in 2007 will be on the back of Kumarage’s mind when he anchors the event in the final.
It will be the first time the country’s women’s 4×400 team will be running at an indoor championships. Whatever the time produced by the quartet anchored by Nadeesha Ramanayake will become a national record.
The Sri Lanka women’s 4×400 team will vie against the US, Poland, China, India and Australia teams. The US team is the undisputed favourites. According to World Athletics USA’s squad features three of the four women that earned 4x400m silver in Glasgow last year – Alexis Holmes, Bailey Lear and Quanera Hayes – along with Rosey Effiong, Karimah Davis and Maya Singletary.
by Reemus Fernando
Bangladesh’s veteran all-rounder Shakib Al Hasan has finally been cleared of suspect action after suffering months of negativity regarding the same. The 37-year-old had failed the test twice but the latest results suggest that Shakib has finally managed to clear the air around his bowling action.
The development comes as a huge sigh of relief for Shakib who had been excluded for Bangladesh’s Champions Trophy squad as the selectors didn’t want to pick him as a specialist batter. Having been suspended to bowl meant that the all-rounder couldn’t take part of the ICC event which had been earmarked as a farewell tournament for him in international cricket.
The phrase third-time lucky proved right for Shakib who cleared his latest bowling action test in England. When contacted by Cricbuzz, he confirmed the news with an understandable air of happiness.
“The news is right (passing about the bowling test) and I am cleared to bowl again,” Shakib said.
Shakib’s bowling action first came under scrutiny during a County Championship match for Surrey against Somerset in September 2024. Subsequently, the England and
Wales Cricket Board [ECB] suspended him following an independent evaluation that declared his action illegal.
Shakib then underwent two separate reassessments, first in England and then in India, failing both attempts, following which he was suspended from bowling.
Sri Lanka at World Indoor Athletics Championships
In the absence of Aruna Dharshana, Kalinga Kumarage is shouldering an extra burden in living up to the reputation of Asian Champions in the 4×400 metres relay when the World Indoor Championship commences in Nanjing China on Friday.
The men’s 400 metres is Sri Lanka’s biggest strength in track and field events though two javelin throwers currently dominate world athletics top lists for the 2025 season. With the track and field season still in its start, the country’s top sprinters were yet to flex their muscles when the opportunity arose for the 400 metres sprinters to compete at the World Indoor Championships.
Kalinga Kumarage
Kumarage is the only experienced campaigner in the men’s 4×400 metres relay team scheduled to compete against world leading USA, Jamaica, Hungary, Nigeria and China in the men’s 4×400 metres final. Both Aruna Dharshana and Kalinga Kumarage had been involved in some of the fastest relay performances for Sri Lanka at international arena including the Asian Games, Asian Championship and Asian Relays. But Dharshana is not available for the event as he is currently competing in Australia. Kumarage is the only member from the gold winning team at last year’s Asian Relays competing in Nanjing. However, it will be a huge opportunity for Randima Madushan and the two juniors Sadew Rajakaruna and Omel Shashintha when they brush shoulders against top sprinters in a global final.
Apart from the relay, Kalinga will also compete in the men’s 400 metres where he will look to produce a top performance in a bid to improve his rankings.
Sri Lanka is fielding its biggest contingent to a world indoor championship this year. The team is inclusive of sprinter Chamod Yodasinghe who will compete in the 60 metres, hurdler Kaveesha Bandara (60 m hurdles) and the men’s and women’s 4×400 metres relay teams.
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Rajakaruna clarifies on behalf of Dharshana
Asanka Rajakaruna, the coach of leading 400 metres specialist Aruna Djarshana said that his charge was unaware of the 4×400 metres relay invitation extended by World Athletics to Sri Lanka for this week’s World Indoor Championships.
He said this with reference to our article on Tuesday which quoted a Sri Lanka Athletics official as having said that Dharshana had decided to stay in Australia to complete his commitments and was not available for the World Indoor Championships.
“We were not informed about the World Indoor Championships. We have always given priority to national duty. Dharshana would have taken the opportunity with open arms had he been informed of the opportunity to compete at the World Indoor Championship,” Asanka Rajakaruna told The Island.
Sri Lanka received the invitation to include relay teams for the World Indoor Championships well after Aruna Dharshana left for Australia.
by Reemus Fernando
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