17 new records in spite of rain
The rains which lashed the Mahinda Rajapaksa Stadium in Diyagama during the last few days did not deter the junior athletes from displaying their talents at the 54th Junior National Athletic Championships. Seventeen new records were established including a Sri Lanka record.
Accordingly 24 (17 boys and 7 girls) athletes for the 17th Asian Junior Athletic Championships in Vietnam from June 2 to 6 was picked.
Another feature of the meet was that four athletes qualified for the IAAF World Junior Athletic Championships from July 19 to 24 in Poland. Prior to this two other athletes had qualified for the meet. Altogether six athletes have qualified for the Poland event.
The qualified athletes: Greshan Dananjaya (St. Joseph Vaz College Wennappuwa – Triple Jump), Chamal Kumarasiri (D.S. Senanayake National School Mirigama – Triple Jump), Udith Chandrasena (Maris Stelle College Negombo – 400 Metres), Akila Ravihansa (Seevali Central College Ratnapura – 110M Hurdles).
The other two athletes who had qualified earlier are: Umaya Udayangani (Welimada Central College – 400 M) and Yamani Dulanjali (Ambagamuwa Central College – 400 Hurdles)
Under 20 triple jumper Greshan Dananjaya of St. Joseph Vaz College Wennappuwa was the overall Best Athlete.
This is the first time that such a prestigious award was made as a result he won the Sri Lanka Telecom Challenge Trophy. This trophy is categorised for both boys and girls and Greshan Dananjaya is the first winner of it.
Dananja cleared the triple distance with 15.78 meters, which is also a new meet record. He broke the previous record set up in 1996 by T. Milan Fernando of Maris Stella College Negombo.
The 54th Junior National Athletic Championships was held four categories with 1,955 athletes from 250 schools taking part.
