Akalanka breaks meet record to reserve Commonwealth Youth Games spot

Junior National Athletics Championships 2023 

By Reemus Fernando  

For the second consecutive day an Asian Youth Championship medallist topped track event performances as meet records continued to fall at the Junior National Athletics Championships continued at Diyagama on Monday.

Commonwealth Youth Games hopeful Ayomal Akalanka of Ambagamuwa Central took 26 miliseconds off the meet record held by an alumni of his school, Dhanuka Dharshana to win the Under 18 boys’ 400 metres hurdles in a time of 52.66 seconds. That was the second hurdles record to suffer a beating by an athlete trained by veteran coach Anura Bandara. S. Himashani of the same school bettered the previous record in the Under 16 girls’ 300 metres hurdles. However, the new record (46.44) in that event was written against the name of Sasvi Seneviratne of Mahamaya Girls’ School, Kandy who piped Himashani to win the gold .

Tharusha Mendis

Akalanka’s notable achievement came just a day after another Asian Youth Championship medallist, Thushen Silva hogged the limelight.

Akalanka had already reached qualifying standards for this year’s Commonwealth Youth Games. But by finishing the event under 52.90 seconds (the locally set qualifying standard) he also convinced selectors of his strength.

Dulanjana Pradeepani of Wickramabahu National School, Gampola was another Asian Youth Championship participant to excel on day two as she won the Under 18 girls’ 800 metres in a time of 2:20.52 seconds. Tharushi Abisheka of the same school won the Under 16 girls’ 800 metres to unsettle Ratnayake Central, Walala, the school that had been dominating these events for years.

Isuru Kalushalya

Lyceum International, Wattala athlete Tharusha Mendis continued his impressive run in the high jump with a record breaking performance in the Under 16 boys’ event.

The impressive feat was on the cards as Mendis carried a personal best of 1.96 metres from last year’s Sir John Tarbat Championships. The athlete trained by Nipuna Nirmal cleared 1.94 metres yesterday to erase a 11-year-old record held by M. Ruvinga of Bandaranaike MMV, Mirigama.

The World Junior Championships participant Isuru Kaushlya competing for Sri Lanka Army registered a new meet record in the Under 23 men’s 200metres. Kaushalya clocked 21.65 seconds to win the final after breaking the record in the heats with a feat of 21.42 seconds. He erased the record (21.50 secs) jointly held by Sachith Perera and Mohamed Safan.