Sir John Tarbet Senior Athletics Championships   

By Reemus Fernando  

Commonwealth Youth Games medallist Ayomal Akalanka improved the Under 18 boys’ 400 metres hurdles meet record for the second time as Ambagamuwa Central continued to dominate hurdles events on the second day of the Sir John Tarbet Senior Championships at the Sugathadasa Stadium on Thursday.

The National Youth record holder commenced the championships with a record-breaking performance in the heats (52.3 secs) on Wednesday and on Thursday the athlete trained by Anura Bandara clocked 51.85 seconds to win with a new record mark. Ambagamuwa Central had another gold medal in the 400 metres hurdles when U.M.A. Sandeepa clocked 56.35 seconds to win the Under 16 boys’ 400 metres hurdles.

Ratnayake Central, Walala continued their dominance in the 800 metres claiming as many as five podium places including two gold medals. This was despite the absence of their leading athlete Tharushi Karunaratne who is preparing for the upcoming Asian Games. She skipped her pet event (800m) and took part only in the 400 metres in the Under 20 category where she was the fastest from heats with a feat of 55.7 seconds.

Incidentally, one of Karunaratne’s meet records was shattered yesterday when Wickramabahu National School Gampola athlete M.G.T.A. Premasiri clocked 2:14.02 seconds to win the Under 16 girls’ 800 metres.

The day’s most impressive sprint performance belonged to Dananjana Sewmini Fernando. The Lyceum athlete broke the Under 16 girls’ 200 metres record held by Sadeepa Henderson of Gateway (2017) with a feat of 25.61 seconds. The Under 20 girls’ 200 metres too was won by the same school as Jithma Wijetunga clocked 26.28 seconds to win the title.