Sri Lanka Athletics hopeful of winning Asian and Commonwealth Games gold medals
Sri Lanka Athletics (SLA) will provide its athletes continuous opportunities to perform, showcase their capabilities and to gain access to important international events that are on the cards in 2022. Major General (retired) Palitha Fernando, the President of SLA, giving his feedbacks on the first three-day athletic trial meet held last week at the Sugathadasa Stadium in Colombo, told the Sunday Times that "overall it was a great comeback" owing the restriction placed earlier to hold full meets.
"If not for the COVID-19 pandemic, SLA would have moved forward a long way ahead. It's clear that athletes were in dire thirst for events, and the outcomes that came out from the first trial meet held on February 11, 12 and 13, were overwhelming," Maj. Gen. Fernando said.
The most notable performance came from long jumper Sarangi Silva, who managed to renew the national record twice on the same day, but four athletes achieving the qualification standards for the forthcoming World Junior Athletics Championship, was one of the main features that came out from the three-day event.
Triple jumper Pasindu Malshan, hurdler Dhanuka Darshana, long jumper Hirusha Hashen Mendis and hurdler Kaveesha Bandara were the athletes who managed to come near the qualifying standards for the World Junior Athletics Championship, set to take place in Cali, Colombia from August 2 to 7.
Malshan from St. Joseph's College, cleared 15.68m in the Boy's Triple Jump event. The qualifying distance in men's triple jump for the World Junior Championship is 15.55m. Darshana clocked 52.21secs in the Boy's 400m Hurdle event, clearing the qualifying standard by nearly a second. The qualifying standard for the world event is set at 53.20secs. Mendis cleared a national record of 7.67m in the Boy's Long Jump event while Bandara clocked 14.02secs in the Boys 110m hurdles. All four athletes have secured a place in their respective events at the World Junior Athletics Championship.
"This is a significant occurrence, four of our athletes qualifying for the world junior event. They reached the entry standards quite comfortably, after their brilliant performances. Had we been able to hold events months earlier, imagine the position Sri Lanka would be in presently. We still must be pleased with these performances," the President of SLA added.
Women's long jumper Sarangi Silva was in her peak last Saturday, as she cleared 6.53m in her first attempt to surpass the distance of 6.48m, the national record that was in existence also set by her in 2021. She would have been thrilled by her initial achievement, but that was overshadowed by the distance she achieved in her next leap of 6.65m.
The new distance, in fact was world lead distance as per world athletics records and statistics. Sarangi's achievement was greater than that of the Asian Games during the past 22 years. The last occasion a gold medal in the Women's Long Jump event was won with a distance of 6.65m or better dates back to 2006. Kumiko Ikeda of Japan cleared 6.81m, but the distance recorded by the silver medalist, Anju Bobby George of India, was 6.52m.
The 26-year-old athlete, who represents Sri Lanka Army, won the gold medal at the South Asian Games 2019 held in Kathmandu, Nepal, by clearing a distance of 6.36m. Since then her performance has got better, with good training and international exposure.
"The seniors too came out with good performances. We saw two national records being renewed and this gives us hope of gold medals at the Asian and Commonwealth Games to be held later this year".
In addition to Silva, who aims to win both gold medals at the Asian Games and Commonwealth Games to be held mid of 2022, middle distance runner Gayanthika Abeyratne too was able to break the national record in Women's 1550m event. Her performance of 4:09.12secs too, is well ahead of the medal prospect at Asian and Commonwealth Games standards. Both Silva and Abeyratne could continue their current standards, Sri Lanka could easily pin hopes in winning the gold medals at Asian and Commonwealth Games.
There were few notable medal prospects who failed to appear at the first trials held last week, due to valid reasons and if these athletes could make full recovery for the second trials to be held for three days from March 10, the SLA President is of the view that they could focus on winning medals henceforth. Their last hope will be the 100th National Athletics Championships to be held in Colombo on April 8, 9 and 10.
The first of the international events to be held is the 22nd Commonwealth Games, to be held in Birmingham from July 28 to August 8. Following that, the 19th Asian Games will be held from September 10 to 22 in Hangzhou, China.