Lekamge smashes Olympian Lakmali’s national record

Lekamge, Gayanthika win bronze medals

By Reemus Fernando

Javelin thrower Dilhani Lekamge smashed Olympian Nadeeka Lakmali’s ten year old national record as she joined team captain Gayanthika Abeyratne in winning bronze medals in their respective disciplines on day one of the Asian Athletics Championships in Bangkok, Thailand on Wednesday.

On a remarkable opening day where sprinters Aruna Dharshana, Rajitha Rajakaruna and Nadeesha Ramanayake all qualified for the 400 metres finals, Lekamge won her second medal at Asian level with a new national record mark of 60.93 metres. Lakmali’s national record mark was 60.64 metres.

While Japan’s Marina Saito with a throw of 61.67 metres, and China’s Liu Shiying (61.51m) bagged the gold and silver respectively, Lekamge was the only other athlete to clear the 60 metres mark.

It was the first time that Lekamge had thrown the javelin to a distance of over 60 metres. She carried a personal best of 59.41 metres (2022) to the Asian Championships. Now Lekamge and Lakmali are the only Sri Lankan women to have cleared the 60 metres mark in the javelin.

Lekamge, who was a training partner to Olympian Lakmali when the duo were under the guidance of late A.J. Rodrigo, is currently trained by Pradeep Nishantha.

Lekamge first won an Asian medal in 2017 when she clinched silver with a throw of 58.11 metres in India.

“I am delighted that she has accomplished the target that we were aiming at from last year,” Nishantha who is currently in France with Paralympics medallist Dinesh Priyashantha for the World Para Championships told The Island in an interview yesterday.

Veteran runner Gayanthika Abeyratne clocked 4:14.39 seconds to be placed third behind Tanaka Nozomi (4:06.75secs) and Yume Goto (4:13.25 secs) of Japan in the 1,500 metres final. The athlete trained by Sajith Jayalal is expected to be among medals again when she competes in the 800 metres along side Tharushi Karunaratne.

In the women’s 400 metres, Nadeesha Ramanayake was the fastest to qualify from the heats as she returned a time o 53.06 seconds to win her heat ahead of Uzbekistan’s Laylo Allaberganova.

Today’s men’s 400 metres final will see two Sri Lankans taking the starter’s orders alongside the leading contenders from the region as Aruna Dharshana and Rajitha Rajakaruna did well in their heats and semi-finals to qualify. Dharshana clocked 45.79 seconds to be placed second behind Fuga Sato of Japan (45.61) in his semi-final. In the other semi final Rajakaruna was placed fifth but could still qualify for the final as he clocked his personal best of 46.12 seconds.

In the women’s triple jump Randi Cooray was placed sixth with a feat of 13.17 metres.