Champions power Artillery to new records

Competition starved track athletes used day one of the Sri Lanka Army Athletics Championship to establish new relay records as national champions in the caliber of Aruna Dharshana, Himasha Eshan, Sarangi Silva, Lakshika Sugandhi and Nadeesha Ramanayake rewrote record books at the Sugathadasa Stadium on Monday.

Pabasara Niku and Mohamed Safan joined 100 metres national champion Himasha Eshan and 400 metres specialist Aruna Dharshana to create a new meet record in the men’s 4×200 metres as they clocked 1:23.71 seconds.

They also powered Artillery Regiment to another record breaking win in the men’s medley relay when they returned a time of 1:50.14 seconds to win. While Safan gave them a strong start in the 100 metres, Himasha ran the 200 metres leg. Niku did the 300 metres before Dharshana anchored the 400 metres to cruise to win ahead of strong contenders SLEME.

In the women’s category Sri Lanka Army Women’s Corps ‘A’ team comprising of national champions Sarangi Silva (long jump), Lakshika Sugandhi (heptathlon) and Nadeesha Ramanayake (400m) were involved in three record breaking feats. They clocked 47.33 Seconds in the 4×100 metres relay to create a new meet record. They were also the champions in the 4×200 metres (1:39.10 secs) and medley relays (2:08.99).