Parami wins gold in steeplechase as SL ups medal tally to 6

Seventeen year old Parami Wasanthi Maristella of Kuliyapitiya CC sealed the 3000m Steeple Chase to win the gold medal with personal best of 10:21.54 at the Asian Junior Championship continued at Gifu, Japan  on Saturday.

Dilshi Kumarasinghe won her second medal in the Asian Juniors with another personal best and the new Sri Lanka junior record clocking 2:04.53 winning the bronze medal in the 800m respectively.

Sri Lanka so far won two golds, three silvers and a bronze. Ridma Nishadi who competed in the long jump event secured the sixth place with 5.75m. Aruna Darshana broke one of the oldest championship records on the opening day of the meet to win the 400m in 45.79 seconds on Friday.

Darshana’s winning time not only broke the championship record of 45.85 that had stood since 1999, but also improved on his own national junior record.

Compatriot Pasindu Kodikara won the silver medal clocking 46.96.

Female 400m runner Dilshi Kumarasinghe started Sri Lanka’s medal count winning the silver medal just behind Indian Olympian Jisna Mathew who become the gold medalist clocking 53.26 establishing her personnel best timing.

Dilshi secured the silver medal with a new personal best of 54.03 seconds. The third place was won by Yang Jui-Hsuan from Chinese Taipei and she clocked 54.74 seconds.

In the women’s 100m final Amasha de Silva secured the second place clocking 11.71 with her personnel best while Feng Lulu from China took the gold medal with 11.68 seconds and Kodama Mei from Japan won the bronze in 11.98 seconds.

Sri Lanka probably missed the bronze medal at the 400X100 relay which went to Hong Kong in 47 seconds. Sri Lanka won the gold medal with a timing of 46.23 at the recent South Asia Junior Games and could not send the girls’ team due to a quota issue. The girls’ 4x100m relay quartet was made up of Amasha de Silva, Sharmila Jan, Shelinda Jansen and Safiya Yamic.

They also shattered the meet record, as well as the Sri Lanka Junior record of 46.28 seconds set 24 years ago in 1994 by a team which included Damayanthi Dharsha and Susanthika Jayasinghe, proving they are the best junior 100m relay team Sri Lanka has ever produced.