By Dhammika Ratnaweera
Sri Lanka’s US-based long-distance runner Hiruni Wijayaratna will be the key attraction of the 97th National Athletics Championship which will be held in Sugathadasa Stadium in Colombo from 16 to 18 August. This will be Hiruni’s maiden track competition in Sri Lanka and she will compete in 5000m and 10,000m events respectively.
Hiruni holds 10 Sri Lankan national records on road and track events. She first ran the Sri Lankan marathon record of 2:36:35 in Houston, Texas, USA during the 2018 Chevron Houston Marathon. She then renewed the Sri Lankan marathon record at the 2019 Metro Dusseldorf Marathon, with a time of 2:34:10 which is also a South Asian Area Record. She also shattered the long-standing SL record of 33:57.96 seconds set by Sujeewa Nilmini Jayasena 16 years ago in 2003.
This will be the final major event in the athletic calendar used as the selection trials of the forthcoming South Asian Games which will be held in Nepal from 1st to 10th of December. Meanwhile, the Athletics Association (AASL) has stated that there won’t be any alteration to the team selected from the NAC trials except if caused by injury or health issues.
The 3-day championship has attracted just 486 entries from men and 147 from women, and AASL reckons the SAG rule of limiting a country’s contestants to one entry per event is the main reason for the low number of entries with only the cream of athletes participating.
The Athletic Nationals will feature the top junior and senior athletes, including the likes of Parami Wasanthi and Shelinda Jansen while defending SAG champions Rumeshika Rathnayaka and 800 champion Indunil Herath is expected to make a strong return after quite a few months away from local athletics. The Men’s 400m is set to be one of the slowest in the NAC during recent years as many top quarter milers are missing from it. Sub-46 second runner Kalinga Kumarage will not feature in the race as he is serving a doping ban, while Pasindu Kodikara will miss out due to A/L exams. Asian Championship participant Ajith Premakumara wasn’t training due to personal reasons, whilst Dilip Ruwan who started training earlier this year is not at his best. Asian Junior Gold medalist Aruna Darshana is just coming off an injury and has not run under 47 seconds so far this year.
The AASL Vice President G.L.S Perera said that they are focusing on five athletes to achieve the qualifying standards for the World Championship or come close to it. The five on whom Sri Lanka is pinning its hopes are Himasha Eashan (100m), Sumedha Ranasinghe (Javelin Throw), Nilani Rathnayaka (Women’s 3000m St. Chase), Janaka Prasad Wimalasiri (Long Jump) and Greshan Dhananjaya (Triple Jump), and all five will have to break national records to achieve the World Championship target.
The Asian Athletics Association (AAC) has come forward to sponsor the NAC with USD 5000 to cover the expenses, and AASL states that their close ties with AAA president General Dahlan Jumaan al-Hamad have prompted the grant.
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