A tough challenge awaits track and field athletes

Commonwealth Games 2022

by Reemus Fernando

Track and field is one of only four Olympic sports to have earned Sri Lanka medals of all colours in the history of the Commonwealth Games, though the sport has not achieved much success during the last two decades at the quadrennial event. But when the latest edition of the multi sports event commences in Birmingham today, the six member track and field team are in a slightly better position to challenge their counterparts than most of their predecessors who took part in the last two decades.

The team consisting of sprinter Yupun Abeykoon, 400 metres specialist Kalinga Kumarage, thrower Sumedha Ranasinghe, long jumper Sarangi Silva, middle distance runner Gayanthika Abeyratne and steeplechaser Nilani Ratnayake are the smallest track and field team to a Commonwealth Games since the solitary participation of A. Premachandra at the 1978 Edmonton Games.

There had top athletes including Olympic medallist Susanthika Jayasinghe featuring in SL teams from 2002 Manchester to the 2018 Gold Coast but none could emulate the feats of former medal winners, namely Duncan White (1950 Auckland: gold in 440yard hurdles – 52.5 secs), Shriyani Kulawansa (1998 Kuala Lumpur: Silver in 100m hurdles- 12.95 secs) and Sugath Thilakaratne (1998: Bronze in 400m- 44.64secs) during the last two decades.

With the sport’s new poster boy Yupun Abeykoon making vast strides from his base in Italy, fans are looking forward to exciting performances in the men’s 100 metres. After Shehan Ambepitiya featured in the 2010 Delhi Games, Abeykoon is the first 100 metres runner representing Sri Lanka. Ambepitiya, a superb sprinter, with several Commonwealth Youth Games medals against his name was not even among the top 100 athletes when he went to India for the Games. But today, thanks to the determined efforts made by Abeykoon and his coaches, the South Asian record holder is among the top performers in the world. His 9.96 effort recorded prior to the World Championships is ranked among the best 16 in the world. There are at least eight Commonwealth athletes who have done better than Yupun this season, but the Olympian’s pre season plan of reaching the final looks a realistic target.

Rio Olympic participant Sumedha Ranasinghe failed to make an impression at the Gold Coast Games in 2018. But with a seasonal best of 82.18 metres, the athlete trained by Pradeep Nishantha is in better shape. His best effort this season is ranked among the top 30 performances in the world. With some of the best athletes in this discipline not among Commonwealth nations he has less than half a dozen top contenders to compete against. However, they are inclusive of several leading athletes including newly crowned World Champion Anderson Peters.

Long jumper Sarangi Silva skipped the recently concluded World Championships to concentrate on the Games. Her seasonal best of 6.65 metres has given her confidence as it is better than the gold winning feat of the 2014 edition. In 2018 it was a different story as Canada’s Christabel Nettey won with a feat of 6.84 metres. She has a seasonal best of 6.80 metres. She is not the only athlete from Commonwealth nations to have cleared that distance this season as several others including at least one from the hosts too have hopes of reaching the podium.

The strong Kenyan presence will present Nilani Ratnayake a huge challenge in the women’s 3,000 metres steeplechase, but her training partner Gayanthika Abeyratne has a chance of bettering her performance at the 2018 Games. Abeyratne clocked 2:04.72 seconds to be eliminated in the 800 metres heats at the last edition. With a national record feat of 2:01.44 seconds against her name (from April) she is expected to do well in the heats.

Kalinga Kumarage too will have a huge challenge as he carries a seasonal best of 45.88 seconds to the men’s 400 metres competition. It took Sugath Thilakaratne an outstanding effort of 44.64 seconds to clinch a bronze at the Kuala Lumpur Games way back in 1998. It will be an accomplishment if Kalinga could advance from the heats.

With the Commonwealth Nations representing some of the power houses of track and field, Sri Lankans are presented with the challenge of competing against the world’s best athletes at these Games. Take the case of Olympic medallist Susanthika Jayasinghe’s 11.08 seconds feat in the 100 metres final, her seasonal best that year, at the Manchester edition. She was the eleventh fastest athlete in the world that year but that 11.08 seconds effort was found to be a millisecond slower than that of Bahamian bronze medallist Sevatheda Fynes as Debbie Ferguson stopped the clock in a Games record of 10.91 seconds to win gold.