Napthali, Sadini, Dananjaya set up new records
Three new meet records were shattered on the second day of the Junior National Athletics Championship continued at the Mahinda Rajapaksa Sports Complex in Diyagama yesterday.
Napthali Joyson of Arunodaya College Alaweddy, S. Sadini Kaveesha of Vijitha MMV Dickwella and L. P. G. Dananjaya of St. Joseph Vaz College Wennappuwa stole the limelight by establishing new meet records.
Napthali produced an effort of 4.61 metres in the Boys’ Under-20 pole vault final while erasing the previous record of 4.50 metres held by M. H. I. Sandaruwam of Walala A. Rathnayake MMV.
Meanwhile, Sadini cleared a distance of 5.48 metres in the Girls’ Under-16 high jump final to better the previous record of 5.46 metres held by Achintha Nirmani of Musaeus College.
In addition, Dananjaya also made an impact while clearing a distance of 7.83 metres in the Boys’ Under-23 long jump final while erasing the previous best of 7.70 metres held by Milantha Dissanayake of Sri Lanka Army.
Earlier, three new meet records were set up on the opening day of the event.
The best effort came from Asmika Herath of Kuliyapitiya Central who clocked 6:59.96 seconds in the Girls’ Under-18, 2,000 metres steeple chase final to erase the previous record of 7:10.95 seconds held by S. G. M. Weerasinghe of Walala Rathnayake MMV.
Asmika also qualified to compete in the IAAF World Under- 18 Athletic Championships to be held in Kenya in July, 2017.
The meet is conducted by the Athletic Association of Sri Lanka (AASL) while targeting three international events namely the IAAF World Under-18 Athletics Championships, Asian Youth Athletics Championships in Thailand and the Commonwealth Youth Games in Bahamas.