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Prasanna pips Pradeep to World C’ships
By M. Shamil Amit
The first national trials to select athletes for the World Championship in Helsinki and the Asian Championship in Korea was concluded yesterday at the Sugathadasa Stadium. The two day event saw most of the top athletes participating sans Susanthika Jayasinghe, Sugath Tilekaratne and Ranga Wimalawansa who had to skip due to injuries.

The second day's event came to an end with the success of Prasanna Amarasekera representing the Army who with his timing of 45.49 seconds in the 400m became the only athlete to get qualified to the forthcoming World Championship. The standard time set by the IAAF in the 400m for the World Championship was 45.55 for 'A' Standarad and 45.95 for the 'B' Standard. With his timing Prasanna qualifies himself to the first category.

The runners in this event included the Sri Lanka champion Rohan Pradeep Kumara who along with Amarasekera will be participating in the forthcoming Asian Grand Prix. Rohan Pradeep was nowhere near Amarasekera who sprinted his way leaving little room for his rival to get close, the third place went to I.M.R. Pushpakumara also of the Army. Earlier in the day a new Sri Lanka record was set by another Army athlete W.C.T. Wijekoon when he broke his own record in the men's 1500m with a timing of 3.43.82 as against his 3.43.87. On the first day of the trials schoolgirl from Devi Balika Borella Lahiruni Peiris equalled the women's high jump record with a leap of 1.75m.

Apart from these two performances the other athletes failed to impress. The athletes from the Army had a field day with most of them winning their events with ease. The few fans that had come to witness the trials were disappointed by Damayanthie Darsha who did not turn up for her pet 400m event, having on the first day returned a poor timing of 24.2 seconds in the 200m which was even way behind the best timing of the SAF Games.

The 100m sprint event for men's and women's also returned a poor timing with the men's event being won by Suminda Mendis of Army who timed 10.88 followed by Prabashitha Caldera and Umanaga Surendra. The women's sprint event was won by South Asian Games medalist Jani Chaturangi of Lanka Lions with a timing of 12.35 followed by H.P.S. Buddika and D.B.G. Padmakumara.

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