101st National Athletics Championships

By Reemus Fernando

Stage is set for a blockbuster men’s 400 metres final today after the four leading sprinters secured final berths with noteworthy semi-final performances on day one of the 101st National Athletics Championships at the Sugathadasa Stadium on Friday. 

On a day where the Indian thrower Kishore Kumar Jena rose above the rest to produce a new Sri Lanka All Comers record and a new championship mark, the men’s 400 metres provided the sparks of excitement for the local athletes. The country’s leading sprinters Aruna Dharshana, Kalinga Kumarage, Pabasara Niku and Rajitha Rajakaruna all eased to the final with the latter joining the sub 46 seconds club with the fastest performance from the semis (45.98 seconds).

Rajakaruna became the sixth man in Sri Lanka’s history to produce sub 46 seconds in the one lap race. National record holder Sugath Thilakaratne and former champions Rohan Pradeep Kumara, Prasanna Sampath Amarasekara and current champions Kumarage and Dharshana are the others to have clocked sub 46 seconds in the 400 metres. Now with three of history’s six sub 46 seconds sprinters and four of the seven fastest in SL history featuring in today’s final one of the fastest performances in the National Championship history is expected.

In the men’s pole vault, Asian Youth Championship medallist Thushen Silva of Maris Stella College, Negombo improved his national youth record and came within two centimeters of breaking the national junior record as he cleared 4.8 metres to settle for the fifth position. Ishara Sandaruwan clinched the title with a feat of 4.9 metres, a height shared by the second and third-placed athletes.

The day’s most outstanding performance was by Indian thrower Kishore Kumar Jena who shattered the championship record and the Sri Lanka All Comers record with a throw of 84.38 metres. Sri Lankan record holder Sumeda Ranasinghe settled for third place behind the Indians with a feat of 73.40 metres. Shivapal Singh won the silver with a throw of 77.36 metres.

With the qualification period for the World Championships closing on Sunday athletes from India and Maldives joined their Sri Lankan counterparts to push hard for the qualifying marks. India managed to bag gold medals in several events including the women’s 10,000 metres

Asian Championship double medallist Gayanthika Abeyratne came up with a 4:16.83 effort to clinch the title in the women’s 1,500 metres. Abeyratne who won the bronze medals in the 1,500 metres and the 800 mertres at Thailand will now move her focus to the 800 metrres where two of Asia’s fastest runners are expected to fight for the national title. Tharushi Karunaratne will join her in fray in the 8000 metres final on Sunday.