Tarushi Karunaratne, who won the gold medal in the women’s 800m event held yesterday at the Olympic Sports Centre Stadium in Hangzhou, China, later won the bronze medal with the women’s 400m relay team.
Tarushi, who participated in the 800m event yesterday at 4.55 pm Sri Lanka time, won the gold medal with a time of 2:02.20 minutes, and she won the bronze medal by participating in the women’s 400m relay event at 5.45 pm Sri Lanka time.
This is the first gold medal won by Sri Lanka in the women’s 800-metre event at the Asian Games.
It is also notable that Sri Lanka won an athletics gold medal at an Asian Games after 21 years. The last time Sri Lanka’s Susanthika Jayasinghe and Damayanthi Darsha won gold medals was in Busan, South Korea in 2002. This is the 12th gold medal won by Sri Lanka in the history of the Asian Games.
18-year-old Tarushi was also the youngest among the eight players who joined this event yesterday. Tarushi, who holds the Sri Lankan record in this event, entered the sport at Walala A. Rathnayake Central College and is coached by Susantha Fernando. Gayanthika Abeyratne who represented Sri Lanka in this event got the last place. Her recorded time was 2:05.87 minutes. The silver medal was won by India’s Harmilan Bains (2:03.75), while the bronze medal went to China’s Wang Chunyu (2:03.90).
In the women’s 400m relay event, the Sri Lankan team clocked 3:30.88 minutes, Nadeesha Ramanayake, Jayeshi Uttara and Sayuri Mendis joined the team along with Tarushi. This time also became a new Sri Lankan record, while the old Sri Lankan record was set at the Asian Athletics Championship held last July at 3:33.27 minutes. Nadeesha Ramanayake, Sayuri Mendis, Nishendra Fernando and Tarushi Karunaratne participated in that event. This is the first medal won in this event at the Asian Games.
Bahrain won the gold medal in this event with a time of 3:27.65 minutes, setting a new competition record. India (3:27.85), which claimed their old record (3:28.68), won the silver medal.
The Sri Lankan men’s team managed to win the bronze medal in this event, where their time was 3:02.55 minutes. The preliminary round of this event was held on Tuesday, where the Sri Lankan team recorded a time of 3:06.60 minutes. Dinuka Deshan and Pasindu Kodikara, who took part in that event, did not participate in the race yesterday, while Rajitha Rajakaruna and Pabasara Nikoo joined Aruna Darshana along with Kalinga Kumarage.
Although this is the best time recorded by the Sri Lankan 400m relay team at the Asian Games, the previous best time in this event was recorded in 1974 when Sri Lanka won the gold medal with a time of 3:07.40 minutes.
The gold medal in this competition was won by India, who finished the competition in 3:01.58 minutes, while the silver medal went to Qatar (3:02.05).
With yesterday’s gold and two bronze medals, Sri Lanka finished 23rd in the medal table with one gold medal, two silver medals and two bronze medals.
Poor batting pull Sri Lanka out
Meanwhile, due to the irresponsible playing style of the batsmen, Sri Lanka’s medal hopes in the men’s event of the cricket tournament were dashed yesterday.
Sri Lanka and Afghanistan, who qualified directly for the quarter-finals of this tournament, met in the third match of that round, where the Sri Lankan team lost by eight runs. With this defeat, Sri Lanka lost the gold medal it had won in the men’s cricket event at the last Asian Games, and this time they are not among the first 4 teams. Sri Lanka had last won the men’s cricket gold medal at the 2014 Games held in South Korea under the leadership of Lahiru Thirimanna. Afghanistan, who won the match yesterday, will meet Pakistan in the semi-final match tomorrow.
Sri Lanka won the toss of yesterday’s match at the Sheijang University Cricket Ground in Hangzhou, and invited Afghanistan to bat first. Afghanistan scored 116 in 18.3 overs and in reply Sri Lanka were skittled out for 108 in 19.1 overs.
Captain Sahan Arachchige was the top scorer of the innings with 22 runs. Lasith Kruspulle scored 16 runs, Ashen Bandara and Vijayakanth Viaskanth scored 13 runs each. In front of the Afghan bowlers, the rest of the batsmen could not cross the 9-run limit, and the impatience of the Sri Lankan batsmen was seen throughout this match.
In bowling, Qais Ahmad and Gulbadin Naib shared three wickets each.
Batting first, Noor Ali Zadran scored 51 runs for the Afghan team, while Nuwan Thushara took 4 wickets and Sahan Arachchi took 2 wickets.
Badminton
Viren Nettasinghe, who qualified for the round of last 16 in the badminton singles event yesterday, lost the opportunity to advance. It was due to losing 2-0 to Chinese Taipei player Tien Chen. The score was 21-16 and 21-10. With this defeat, Sri Lanka’s badminton participation in the Games came to an end as Viren was the only Badminton player to participate in the Games this year.
Wrestling
Nethmi Ahinsa, who is the only Lankan representative in the wrestling event of this year’s Games, is going to compete in the 53 kg event today.
Her first opponent is SEDNEVA Marina from Kazakhstan. The match will be held at 7.30 am local time.
Karate
The karate events of the Asian Games begin today, and Deneth Avihinsa Fernando and Heshani Hettiachchi are going to compete in the tournament representing Sri Lanka.
20-year-old Deneth, who has been representing the national team since 2016, has been competing in the 67 kg Kumite event, and he is a student of Moratuwa Prince of Wales School and has also won the South Asian Championship. 25-year-old Heshani has represented the national team since 2013 and is a student at Sabaragamuwa University.
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