Indian athletes dominated the medals tally by winning 20 golds with host Sri Lanka securing second place with 12 at the third South Asian Junior Athletics Championships that concluded at the Sugathadasa Stadium yesterday.
In total Indian won 50 medals including 20 gold, 22 silver and 8 bronze and Sri Lanka had a medals tally of 41 that included 12 gold, 10 silver and 19 bronze.
Pakistan finished in third place bagging one silver and one bronze medal while Bangladesh (2 silver) and Maldives (1 bronze) were placed fourth and fifth.
Sprinter from A. Ratnayake Central College Walala Dilshi Kumarasinghe razed the track when she established a new meet record in the 800m event clocking 02:07.73 seconds and thereby qualified for the IAAF World Junior Championship to be held in Finland in June. She overcame entry qualification time of 2:08.70 seconds.
Kumarasinghe broke the record set by Indian athlete Jessy Joseph (2:08.38) secs in India in 2013. She also set a new record in the 400m event on the opening day of the championships.
Indian duo Durga Pramod Deore (2:09.00) and Ankita Chahal (2:09.91) won second and third places in the event.
Sri Lanka made a clean sweep in the 200m women’s finals occupying all three positions (gold, silver and bronze). Amasha de Silva won the gold clocking 24.70 secs and she was followed by Sharmila Jens – silver in 24.80 secs and Shelinda Jansen bronze in 25.08secs.
A total of 21 new meet records were established at the end of the two-day championship, with India accounting for 13 and Sri Lanka 8. Many of the athletes from India and Sri Lanka produced their personal best timings in their respective careers.
Sri Lankan men and women came up with stunning performances by establishing a new meet record in the 4x400m. The men’s team comprising P.L. Kodikara, Ravishka Indrajith, Pabasara Niku, Aruna Dharshana clocked 3:08.23 to erase the Indian record of 47.14 secs set in 2007 in Colombo.
In the women’s 4x400m Dilshi Kumarasinghe, Amasha de Silva, Sachini Divyanjali and Romeshi Attidiya clocked 3:43.00 secs to improve on the Indian record of 3:50.27 set in the 2007 championship.
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