Aruna, Amasha shine as Artillery Regiment take command  

by Reemus Fernando  

Sprinters Aruna Dharshan and Amasha de Silva produced thrilling performances but witnessing the former’s heroics in the 400 metres final will not be a possibility today after the Artillery Regiment athlete had to pull out through injury in the semi-finals on day four of the Army Athletics Championships at the Sugathadasa Stadium on Thursday.

Amasha established a new meet record in the women’s 200 metres after emerging sprinter Medhani Jayamanne’s late surge produced a photo finish to stop the clock at 24.05 seconds. The winner and the runner up were separated by one hundredth of a second.

Dharshana announced his return to form at this Army Championships producing a number of notable performances including record breaking feats in relays. He had the men’s 200 metres title under his belt yesterday before a hamstring injury forced him out of competition in the 400 metres semi-finals. However, by the time Dharshana pulled out, his regiment was leading the men’s competition with 214 points. Formidable SLEME were trailing in the second place with 171 points.

The day commenced with Nilani Ratnayake bagging her second individual gold as she clocked 16:32.47 seconds to win the 5,000 metres.  The corresponding men’s event was won by V. Vaksan who returned a time of 14:41.05 seconds to finish ahead of R.M.S. Pushpakumara.

Dilshi Kumarasinghe had it easy in the 800 metres and was hardly challenged during the entire race. She returned a time of 2:06.73 seconds. Emerging middle distance runner Shanika Lakshani finished second in a time of 2:09.22 seconds.

Harsha Karunaratne ran a tactically slower first lap in the men’s 800 metres before sprinting to victory in the last 100 metres as he edged out Asian Championship (2019) participant Rusiru Chathuranga to win in a time of 1:51.06 seconds.

Experienced campaigner Sanjaya Jayasinghe won the gold in the men’s triple jump with a feat of 15.71 metres.

In the women’s 400 metres hurdles G.A.S. Dulani clocked 61.49 seconds to win after leading contender Kaushalya Madushani was disqualified for a foul start. In the men’s event Asitha Rathnasena edged out D.K. Vidhuranga in the last few metres. He was the second to clear the last hurdle but managed to pip Viduranga to second place as he stopped the clock at 52.35 seconds.

The women’s shot put gold was won by P.H. Sewwandi (10.74m) while the heptathlon felt the absence of Lakshika Sugandhi as the gold went to a total of 2051 points (S.A. Gimhani).

The Decathlon was won by M.I.M. Asan who aggregated 6892 points to beat national record holder Ajith Karunathilaka to the second place.