Sumedha and Nilani claim top awards at SLA Centenary Nationals
Javelin thrower Sumedha Ranasinghe and triple jumper Chamal Kumarasiri established new meet records on the concluding day of the Sri Lanka Athletics Centenary National Athletics Championship where Ranasinghe and Nilani Ratnayake were adjudged best male and female athlete of the event.
Olympian Ranasinghe hurled a distance of 82.18m, surpassing his own record of 80.76m to win the event and the best athlete award. His attempt was nine metres ahead of the second place, winner D.S. Ranasinghe who cleared 73.18m. R.M. Fernando won the third place clearing 71.42m.
Kumarasiri had a jump of 16.40m in the triple jump obliterating the previous record of 16.37m while S.T. Seneviratne leaped 15.57m followed by Sandun Krishantha clearing 15.55m to place second and third.
Nilani Ratnayake, who missed Olympics participation last year, produced a new steeplechase national record as she battered her previous record with a time of 9:40.24 seconds finish. She bettered the qualifying standards by three seconds.
In the women’s 100m dash, Amashi de Silva, with a time of 11.69secs, finished ahead pushing Rumeshika Ratnayake to second place with a timing of 11.87secs. Shelinda Jansen finished third with a time of 11.93secs.
C.M. Yodasinghe, N. Chathuranga and D.C. Piyumal grabbed the first three places in the men’s short sprint clocking 10.50secs, 10.60secs and 10.69secs respectively.
After a close tussle for the long sprint (400m) Kalinga Kumarage beat Aruna Darshana to win the title clocking 45.88secs. Darshana finished second at 45.90secs while P.L. Lakshan clocked 46.71secs to place third. In the women’s category Tharushi Dilsara (53.85secs), H.J. Uththara (54.14secs) and R. Nadeesha (54.29 secs) grabbed the top three places respectively.