Lankan trio in stunning clean sweep of men’s 400m sprint
Aruna Dharshan leads Sri Lanka's clean sweep in men's 400m dash. Pix by Amila Gamage
Sri Lanka made a clean sweep in the men’s 400m dash with Aruna Darshana, PMPL Kodikara and Pabasara Niku producing a stunning performance at the opening day of the two-day South Asian Junior Athletics Championship held at the Sugathadasa Stadium yesterday. The event was held as a straight final with only seven athletes competing.
Led by Darshana, the national junior champion, the trio raced to victory pushing their closest rivals India out of a podium finish—the only time India failed to win a medal out of the 16 finals worked off on day one.
Sri Lanka’s team captain Darshana clocked a blistering 46.55 secs to become the 400m champion with a new meet record followed by Kodikara and Nithu in second and third places clocking times of 46.99secs and 47.43secs respectively.
In the women’s 400m, Shayamali Kumarasinghe did not disappoint her fans winning the title in a record time. She clocked 54.47secs followed by India’s Subha Venkatesan and Rachna Gujar in second and third places respectively.
Tears of joy as they celebrate the record breaking win
Meanwhile Amasha De Silva became the fastest female junior athlete in the region winning the 100m title in a new meet record time of 11.92 seconds. India’s Chaitrail Kalidas grabbed silver while Shelinda Jansen of Sri Lanka won the bronze medal registering a time of 12.28secs.
The 19-year-old Amasha later led Sri Lanka to the 4x100m women’s title with a new meet record while their male counterparts had a tearful end to the campaign, after dropping the baton during the second baton change. Sri Lanka were cruising smoothly at the end of the first 200 metres but Chamod Yodasinghe running the third lap dropped the baton which was smoothly passed on to him by Yohan Silva, ending Sri Lanka’s hopes for a clean sweep in relay titles.
Sri Lanka’s 4×100 women’s relay quartet included, Amasha, Shelinda, Sharmila Jans and Safiya Yami who clocked a time of 46.23 to write their names in the record books. India’s Prajwal Mandanna was the 100m men’s champion with a time of 10.81 secs. Sri Lanka’s Chanuka Sandeepa won the silver medal with a time of 10.88secs, followed by India’s Akash Kumar with a time of 10.89secs.
Tharindu Dasun was Sri Lanka’s first gold medallist of the day when he cleared a height of 2.04m to win the men’s high jump gold medal. Sri Lanka’s ST Amarasinghe finished third with a height of 2.00m.
Overall hosts Sri Lanka had five gold, six silver and 10 bronze medals. India leads the medal table with 11 gold, 10 silver and three bronze medals.
| Chaos at athletics – who is responsible? | |
| Sports Minister Faiszer Musthapha has directed the Secretary to his Ministry to suspend the services of Director General of Sports H M P B Herath for failing to facilitate accommodation for Sri Lankan athletes participating in the South Asian Junior Athletics Championships which started yesterday in Sri Lanka and will end today.The local contingent was housed at the athletes’ hostel in Torrington where they underwent misery with no electricity or water for more than twelve hours due to a transformer repair. They were later transferred to a nearby hotel on the Sports Minister’s instructions.Secretary to the Ministry Jayantha Wijeratne has appointed an Additional Secretary to conduct a full-scale investigation and submit a report by Tuesday.“Till then, we have instructed him not to engage in any official work,” said Wijeratne. “I have given instructions to the Additional Secretary to do a thorough investigation to identify those responsible for the mess up. We will take appropriate action accordingly.” A Sports Ministry media release states that the Director General of Sports, who is in-charge of the Torrington hostel, had failed miserably to perform his duties and was ordered to be suspended with immediate effect. With 84 players and 15 officials housed in the said facility, there had been an unbearable stench in the dormitory and from the toilets. “There was no power since 10 in the morning and until around 8 in the night,” an athlete said. “They kept saying they are getting a generator. Even though the power was restored later in the day, what was generated was not sufficient to work the water pumps. So there was absolute chaos. But they did not even allow us to leave.” When the issue was finally conveyed to the minister, he asked his officials to shift the entire contingent to a nearby hotel. While many criticise the role of the Director General of Sports, under whose purview the facility is maintained, the competency of athletics officials who organised the event has also been called to question. |