98th Athletics Nationals concludes as Nadeesha and Kalinga win double golds

By Dhammika Ratnaweera

Kalinga Kumarage and Nadeesha Ramanayake completed double gold medals each at the 98th National Athletic championship which concluded at the Sugatadasa Stadium in Colombo yesterday(29). It was a good comeback for the athletes after the lockdown period and Sri Lanka Athletics had done their best to organize the event under the health regulations due to Covid 19.

The four-day event ended with one Sri Lanka record and one new meet record while overall Sri Lanka Army athletes dominated this Nationals by winning 30 gold medals throughout the four days.

Nadeesha Ramanayake who missed a double gold medal at the last South Asian Games in Kathmandu due to Dengue fever this time completed her task with good form to win both 200 m and 400m events. She was placed first at the 400m on the last day 53.47 seconds also finished with great style and last South Asian gold medalist Dilshi Kumarasinghe had to satisfied silver medal this time with 53.81 seconds. Romeshi Silva from Sri Lanka schools was placed third with 57.45 seconds.

Meanwhile, Kalinga Kumarage who won the 200m completed his second gold by winning 400m with clocking  46.25 seconds. He completed the event with 47.46 seconds to finished first at the heats and later improved his timing to win the gold .R.M.Rajakaruna (47.02sec) and Anura Dharshana(47.04) were placed second and third and both of them were placed first at the heats. However, Kalinga Kumarage the 28-year-old Soldier had disappointing two years as he caught in a Doping scandal finally cleared after a lengthy legal battle made good come back with double gold on this Nationals.

In another turn of events, Gayanthika Abeyratne won the gold at the women’s 1500m with 4 minutes 17.58 seconds and she made a good comeback by defeating Nilani Ratnayake in 4.21.28 seconds and Nimali Liyanarachchi in 4.28.13 seconds. Nilani was the last South Asian  Games Gold medal winner of this event while Nimali was back to the action after the motorbike accident had to satisfied with second and third places.

Saman Kumara Fernando won the men’s 1500m with 3.47.86 seconds while H.M.N Nandasena won the men’s 10000m event with 35 minutes 21.11 seconds. H.A.A Lakshika from Sri Lanka Air Force and M.R.Sisira Kumara of Army won the women’s and men’s hammer throw events .S..S Jayasinghe of Army was placed first at the men’s triple jump event while Ajith Kumara Karunathilaka of Army was with 7059 points won the Decathlon event which was the last event of the meet.