By Dhammika Ratnaweera
Sri Lankan middle-distance runner Nimali Liyanarachchi came to the limelight on the opening day of the 97th Athletic championships at the Sugathadasa Stadium in Colombo when she established new Sri Lankan record for the 1500m women’s event with 4 minutes and 15.87 seconds to erase the seven-year-old record which was set up by Champika Dilrukshi (4.16.42 sec) in 2012.
Nimali, an athlete from Sooriyawewa, is coached by Sujith Abeysekera, made the record so significant as she ran this event after nine years on home soil, as she concentrated and ran only in her pet event of 800 metres.
Speaking after the event, Nimali said that she never expected to do well in this event as she participated in the event solely for the experience. “My key event is 800m but I ran 1500m to get experience finally ended up with a new national record.” said Liyanarachchi. The event was participated by only four competitors and Gayanthika Abeyrathna was leading from the beginning and Nimali made her strides in the last lap to make it a national record event.
With this win, Nimali automatically qualified to South Asian Games in this event and she is very confident to take a gold medal at the South Asian Games which will start on 1st December in Nepal. Gayanthika finished only a few seconds behind clocking 4.22.24 seconds for the second place while KM Kumari clocked 4.49.77 seconds for the third place.
Meanwhile, Sri Lankan triple jump champion Vidusha Lakshani, who grabbed the bronze medal at the recently concluded Asian Championships created a major upset with winning the long jump event with 6.23m distance. Anjani Pulawansa who was tipped to win this event finished with second place with 6.02m while Harshani Jayakantha finished third place with 6.0m.
The day started with 3000m steeple chase event and Lilani Ratnayake, the champion runner for this event won the gold medal with 9 minutes and 50.76 seconds while WM Kumari came second place with 11.00.12 seconds and ER Dulakshi 11.02.97 seconds to finish third.
Dulanjali Ranasinghe won the gold medal in women’s high jump without much effort rising 1.75 m as the event was less competitive as the winner was happy to target a SAG gold medal failing to reach her personal best of 1.83m, winning 2006 SAG gold held in Colombo. M. Madushani and EA Pllegama came second and third places with 1.69m and 1.65 m respectively.
Shafrin Ahamad 16.33m won the men’s triple jump event to qualify for the South Asian Games
Meanwhile, Ninodani Lakmali 44.90m and G.U Jayawardena 50.59 m won the discuss throw event in women’s and men’s to qualify for South Asian Games.
The second day of the athletic Nationals starts at 07.00 a.m. with 10,000m women’s finals and US-based Sri Lankan Olympian Hiruni Wijayaratna will participate in the event for the first time in Sri Lanka.
Be the first to comment