Tharushi Karunaratne became the outstanding Sri Lankan at this year’s Games. After winning the gold medal in the 800m event, 50 minutes later she won the bronze medal with the women’s 400m relay team, a new Sri Lankan record.
After winning this gold medal, Tharushi became the number one athlete in the 800m event according to the latest rankings of senior and junior Asian athletes released by the Asian Athletics Association yesterday.
The association organizes at least three major athletic tournaments in Asia in a year, namely the Asian Games, Asian Senior Athletics Championship and Asian Junior (Under 20) Athletics Championship. Tharushi managed to win the gold medal in the 800m event in all three tournaments, and she became the first Asian player to achieve such a feat.
Meanwhile, Olympic Committee General Secretary Maxwell de Silva said that in order to improve Tharushi’s ability at the international level, they will provide a foreign scholarship with the assistance of the National Olympic Committee and Former Olympic medalist S.L.B. Rosa.
Accordingly, he said that in the future, Tharushi’s training will take place in America, but for that, she must complete her education in this country. Tharushi, a student of Walala A Ratnayake College, is going to sit for the General Certificate of Education Advanced level examination this year.
The athletic events of the Asian Games, which are being held in Hangzhou, China, ended yesterday, and the Sri Lankan ended up by winning a gold medal, a silver medal and two bronze medals.
At this year’s Games, 21 countries have won medals in athletics, of which Sri Lanka won eighth place. The first place went to China with 39 medals (19 gold, 11 silver and 9 bronze), followed by Bahrain (16) and India (29). Bahrain won 10 gold, 1 silver and 16 bronze medals, while India won 6 gold, 14 silver and 9 bronze medals.
In addition to athletics, Sri Lanka also won the silver medal in women’s cricket, thus the total number of medals won at this year’s Games is 5. It is significant that in the history of the Asian Games, Sri Lanka won 5 or more medals after 21 years. Sri Lanka had last won 6 medals in 2002 as two gold, one silver and three bronze.
Karate
Meanwhile, Heshani Hettiarachchi, who joined the first round of the women’s singles karate event representing Sri Lanka yesterday, had to withdraw from the first round. Eight players participated in that competition, and Keshani who got 34.30 points finished last.
There is only one more representation left for Sri Lanka in this Games, and that is Dineth Avihinsa, who will enter the competition in the Karate Committee’s 67 kg weight class. He will compete tomorrow (7).
Wrestling
Yesterday, Nethmi Ahimsa entered the competition field in the 53 kg freestyle event and lost to Kazakhstan player Zedneva Marina. Here, the Kazakhstani player got 5 points while Nethmi got 4 points.
Medals Tally
At the end of yesterday’s athletic events, China, who is in the lead in the medal table, had won 177 golds, Japan had won 40 golds in second place, South Korea had won 33 golds and India had won 21 golds. Sri Lanka, which won 5 medals, was ranked 25th on the list.
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