Tharushi shines bright ahead of Asian Games

By Reemus Fernando

Asian Games hopeful Tharushi Karunaratne excelled producing outstanding performances at the Sir John Tarbat Senior Athletics Championships, which turned out to be her last competition ahead of the Asian Games starting on Saturday.

Skipping her pet event of 800 metres to abide by her coach Susantha Fernando’s training plan Tharushi competed only in the 400 metres and the 4×400 metres. The Asian Championship medallist lived up to her reputation in both creating records.

She clocked 52.62 seconds to win the Under 20 girls’ 400 metres with a new national junior record time. She erased Chandrika Subashini’s long standing meet record and became the first school athlete to clock sub 53 seconds.

She was awarded the trophy for the most outstanding athlete in the girls’ category. With her winning time in the 400 metres she overtook Menaka Wickramasinghe to secure the fourth place in the all-time fastest performers in the one lap race.

While Asian Games medallist Damayanthi Dharsha is at the top of the list with her national record time of 51.05 seconds, Subashini (52.36) and Asian Championship gold medallist Nadeesha Ramanayake are the only athletes to have run faster than this schoolgirl.

Such a performance will bode well for her medal ambitions at the Asian Games.

She was also involved in another record-breaking performance in the Under 20 girls’ 4×400 metres. She ran the anchor leg to slash a massive nine seconds off the meet record. She stopped the clock at 3:50.88 seconds.

Tharushi will be aiming for an Asian Games medal in the women’s 800 metres and will play key roles in both the 4×400 metres mixed relay and the women’s 4×400 metres.

Tharushi and her senior Sri Lanka counterpart Gayanthika Abeyratne are the fastest athletes in the Asian region in the two laps race this season. Tharushi established a new Asian Championship record (2:00.66 seconds) in winning the gold medal in Thailand in July. Meanwhile, Asian Junior Championship medallist Malith Yasiru won the best athlete title in the boys’ category at the Sir John Tarbat Senior Championships on Saturday.