Gayanthika and Nilani shatter national records
Gayanthika Abeyratne
Middle distance runner Gayanthika Abeyratne set a new national record in the Women’s 800m with a time of 2:01.44secs at the Centenary National Athletics Championships which is being held at the Diyagama Stadium. The Asian gold medalist shattered the previous record of 2:02.52secs held by Dilshi Kumarasinghe in 2021.
The 35-year-old, who trains under Sajith Jayalal, clocked a record breaking 4:09.12secs last year to achieve qualifying standards of 4:12.00secs for both Asian and Commonwealth Games. On Friday, though well below her record feat last year, Gayanthika clocked 4:12.41sec to win the 1500m.
With the latest feat, she owns all three middle-distance records–800m, 1500m and 5000m.
Meanwhile Nilani Ratnayake shattered her own 3000m steeplechase record clocking 9:40.24secs to achieve Commonwealth and Asian Games qualifying standards. She missed the Olympic qualification last year after failing to earn a place among the best 45 runners.
Amesha Hettiarachchi also shattered her own 400m hurdles Sri Lanka Junior record clocking 1:00.22secs while Tharushi Karunarathne shattered Dilshi Kumarasinghe’s 800m Sri Lanka Junior record recording a time of 2:04.40sec.
Nilani Ratnayake