Tharushi dazzles to another record
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Girls Under-18 800m event in progress - Pix by Amila Gamage
Tharushi Karunaratne of Walala A Ratnayake Central continued her excellent form for the third day running, establishing a new meet record in the girls’ U-16 800m dash to light up the All Island School Games Athletics Championships being conducted at the Sugathadasa Stadium on Saturday.
Karunaratne who established a new record in the girls’ 400 metres on Thursday was in awesome form clocking an excellent 2 minutes 14 seconds to grab a piece of history. The previous record stood at 2 minute 21 seconds established by Nethmi Nimsara of Gurugolla Weerasinghe MV.
Binadi Malsha Udayakumari of Sooriyawewa N.C also eclipsed the previous record by clocking 2 minute 15 seconds to win silver.
Karunaratne’s feat came, a day after she helped her school team to clock the fastest time ever run by a school team in any age category in relays. They clocked 3.56.77 second in the girls’ U-16 4×400 metres relay, a time better than the two higher age groups U-18 and U-20. The team included Tharushi Karunaratne, Rashmi Jayasekara, Dinithi Samarakoon and Sanduni Lakshani. The current Under-18 girls’ 4×400 metres record is 3:59.78 seconds while the Under 20 record is 3:57.44 seconds.
New record for T.G. Tennakoon in Boy's U-18 800m
In the boys’ U-18 800 metres T.G Tennakoon of Ranabima Royal College, Peradeniya clocked an impressive 1 minute 52 seconds to win gold with a new meet record. Behind him was N.D Bulugahapitiya of Berrewaerts College, Kandy who also surpassed the previous record clocking 1 minute 54 seconds. The previous record stood at 1 minute 55 seconds was established by Dinusha Chamuditha of Sooriyawewa N.S.
C. Theepika of Mahajana College of Jaffna won gold in the girls’ U-18 Paul Vault with a record height of 3.25 metres. In the boys’ U-18 Discuss Throw Rumesh Tharanga of St. Peter’s College, Colombo produced a stunning throw to grab gold with a meet record of 50.30 metres, erasing the previous record of 42.72 held by Malinth Wettasinghe of St. Rita’s College, Dummaladeniya. S Mithunraj of Hartley College Jaffna also went pass the previous record with a feat of 45.88 metres to clinch the silver medal.
Naveen Vishwajith Marasinghe of St. Joseph’s College had a throw of 16.20 metres to win gold in the boys’ U-16 Shot Put. Akalanka Wijesuriya of St. Peter’s College, Bambalapitiya held the pervious record for the event with a distance of 15.96 metres.
In the girls’ U-18 Shot Put Ovini Chandrasekera of Bishops’ College with a distance of 14.07 metres won gold with a new meet record while Sarisha Gunasekera of Ladie’s College also bettered the pervious record with a distance of 13.11 metres to win silver. Previous record which stood at 13 metres was held by Darisha Gunasekera. Today is the final day of the four-day meet.