With a whopping 86 new meet records at home, Masters athletes aiming high at Asia C’ship
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Chief Guest P.H.D. Waidyatilaka receiving a memento from Mr. Rupasinghe, the President of MASL, as S.P. Rupasinghe, Senani Bogahawatta (Secretary) and Upali Kumarasiri (Deputy Patron) look on
A whopping number of 86 new meet records were established at the annual Masters’ Athletics Championship, hosted by the Masters Athletics Sri Lanka (MASL), held at the Sugathadasa Stadium in Colombo.
Nearly 1000 athletes participated in the two-day competition, the highest so far. This includes 100 athletes from India. The Indian team manager stated that the number would have been close to 200 if not for the Easter Sunday incident.
The meet was also the final trial to select athletes for the forthcoming Asia Masters Athletics Championships to be held at Kuching, Sarawak, Malaysia from December 2 to 6. Over 200 athletes from Sri Lanka participated at the previous Asian Masters Championships held in Rugao, China in 2017 and won 32 gold, 37 silver and 47 bronze medals. MASL is planning to send over 300 athletes to Malaysia in December and aims to bring in a larger haul of medals from Sarawak.
The chief guest, of the Colombo event was P.H.D. Waidyatilaka, Adviser – Foreign Relations of MASL, Technical Official and International Lecturer of the International Association of Athletics Federations (IAAF). Visakha Waidyatilaka was the guest of honour.
Sanjaya Jayasinghe (left), the Most Valuable Athlete, receiving his award from the chief guest
The winners of the Challenge
trophies are as follows:
The Mr. and Mrs. P.H. Amaradasa Waidyatilaka Memorial Challenge Trophy for the Most Valuable Athlete was won by Sanjaya Jayasinghe (M35) who established a new meet record with a distance of 15.02m in the Triple Jump.
The Mr. and Mrs. David Hettiarachchi Memorial Challenge Trophy for the Best Athlete of the Meet also was claimed by Sanjaya Jayasinghe, who also went on to bag the Mr. and Mrs. Ivor Wijethunga Memorial Challenge Trophy for the Best Performance in Field events for Men. Jayasinghe became the star of the event by claiming his fourth individual award — the Dr. Waruna Fernando Challenge Trophy for the Best Performance in the Men (35) category.
The Lt. Col. C.S. Fernando Challenge Trophy for the Best Performance in Track events for Men was claimed by J.H.P.D. Silva (M35) for his performance in the 110m Hurdles, which was 16.3 seconds. It was a new meet record. Harshani Jayakanthi won the Senani Bogahawatte Challenge Trophy for the Best Performance in Track events for Women. Jayakanthi (W35) clocked 13.0 seconds in the Women’s 100m.
Ace thrower Nadeeka Lakmali (W35) set a new meet record by achieving 49.90metres in the Women’s Javelin Throw and went on to claim the E.P. Rupasinghe Memorial Challenge Trophy for the Best Performance in Field events for Women.
The Mrs. E.S.J. Gunasekera Memorial Challenge Trophy for the Best Performance for Men (M 55) was won by F. Jerrard Fernando, who set a new meet record in the Men’s Discus Throw by achieving 33.10metres. The Dickman Guruge Challenge Trophy for the Best Performance in Women (45) was won by K.M.T.K. Bandara,
who cleared 3.99m in the Long Jump event.
Harshani Jayakanthi, the Best Female Athlete, receiving her award