A. Rajaskhan of the Eastern Province was forced to dig deep and produce a spectacular run in order to pass his opponent from the Central Province, A. Pathirana, who threatened until the very end in an enthralling 200 meter sprint, on the second day of the 38th National Sports Festival, held at the Sugathadasa Stadium [...]

The Sundaytimes Sri Lanka

Only one meet record on day two

=38th National Sports Festival
=Rajaskhan and Pathirana in an epic battle
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A. Rajaskhan of the Eastern Province was forced to dig deep and produce a spectacular run in order to pass his opponent from the Central Province, A. Pathirana, who threatened until the very end in an enthralling 200 meter sprint, on the second day of the 38th National Sports Festival, held at the Sugathadasa Stadium yesterday.

The race was so tight that both men actually finished with identical timings of 21.37 seconds, after their terrific bursts of speed down the stretch left the

M. Dissanayake with a happy look after his successful long jump. - Pic Amila Gamage

race’s other contestants lost in the distance. However, Rajaskhan managed to just inch his chest across the line in the final millisecond and clinch the win. R. Jayawardana from the Western Province secured third position with a time of 21.78 seconds.

The women’s 200 meter race was far less closely-contested as P. Abeywickrama from the Central Province strolled to victory in a time of 24.33 seconds, maintaining a sizable lead throughout the entire distance. She was trailed meekly by H. Fernando (25.23 seconds) of the Western Province and L. Dayaratne (25.31 seconds) of the Sabaragamuwa Province.

The 400 meters women’s hurdles saw a similar one horse race, as W. Nimali from the Southern Province darted to victory in 1.00.85 minutes, establishing a new meet record in the process.

Her closest challenger, W. Dulakshi, also representing the Southern Province, finished in 1.01. 21 minutes, a fair distance ahead of third placed G. Dayananda from the Sabaragamuwa Province.

K. Gunathilaka, also from the Sabaragamuwa Province, did not produce quite as imperious a run in the 400 meters men’s hurdles, but he nevertheless pieced together a solid performance to seal a comfortable 51.70 second victory over the Western Province duo of S. de Silva (51.95 seconds) and J. Prasannajith (52.29).

In the day’s field events, M. Dissanayake from the North Western Province leapt to gold in the men’s Long Jump with a distance of 7.59 meters. His provincial teammate L. Balasooriya notched a first place finish in the Pole Vault event with a height of 4.60 meters.

In the women’s Javelin Throw, the Southern Province’s D. Lakmali swept aside all challengers with a commanding throw of 55.45 meters, while in the women’s Shot Put, T. Fernando also displayed her amazing strength, bagging gold with an impressive distance of 14.06 meters,




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