Ushan scales new heights in US

Olympian Ethir predicts more record breaking feats

by Reemus Fernando

Former Maris Stella College jumper Ushan Thivanka achieved his personal best performance of 2.25 metres in the high jump on Saturday at an indoor competition held in Texas, USA where he is pursuing higher education.

The impressive performance, which is a new Sri Lanka Indoor record, indicates bright prospects as he reached standards set by Sri Lanka Athletics to enter country’s ‘Elite Pool’ of athletes.

Sri Lanka Athletics had set 2.22 metres as the standard to enter the Elite Pool.

Olympian and Asian Games high jump gold medallist Nagalingam Ethirveerasingam, who has helped a number of Sri Lankan high jumpers, including current national record holder Manjula Kumara, pursue higher education and sports in US Universities, believes that Thivanka has the potential to break Manjula Kumara’s outdoor record soon rather than later.

“Ushan has the potential to break or equal Manjula’s record by April or May at an outdoor competition,” Ethirveerasingam who is currently in the US told The Island when asked for his comments on the achievement.

Manjula’s outdoor national record (of 2.27 metres) which is 14 years old now has been equaled only once and that was also by the record holder himself.

Ushan had an outdoor personal best of 2.24 metres achieved in Colombo in 2018 and a seasonal best of 2.21 metres achieved last month (Crimson & Gold Invitational) before entering the competition on Saturday.

Ushan had been considered a potential successor to Manjula Kumara ever since he started scaling heights over 2.20 metres.

His new personal best mark is now level with the 17th position in current indoor world rankings shared by Tihomir Ivanov, Falk Wendrich, Tejaswin Shankar and Jeron Robinson.

In outdoor competitions this year, Hamish Kerr of New Zealand has the best performance of 2.31 metres and all other outdoor performances are below the 2.22 metres mark.

Ushan’s improving standards are a welcome sign to local athletics enthusiasts who are yearning to witness athletes achieving qualifying standards for Tokyo Olympics within the next few months. They have so far witnessed only one athlete (steeplechase athlete Nilani Ratnayake) performing within qualifying standards for the Tokyo Olympics.

The Tokyo Olympics will offer only 32 spots for men’s high jump and the qualifying standard set for the discipline is 2.33 metres.