Athletics: Rumesh Tharanga qualify for Asian Youth Championships

Rumesh Tharanga of St. Peter’s College Bambalapitiya qualified for the 3rd Asian Youth Athletics Championships to be held from March 15 to 17 in Hong Kong. 

Tharanga cleared a distance of 51.90 metres at the selection trial held at the Sugathadasa Stadium on Saturday (19) where 199, Under-18 athletes – boys and girls participated.

The qualifying distance set for the event was 51 metres. 

Shemal Milinda Perera of St. Mary's College recorded a wind assisted time (+3.1) of 10.80sec in the boys 100m heats. 

Even though his timing was better than the qualifying time set at 10.88secs, it was not considered due to the wind factor. Milinda won the event with a time of 10.95secs. 

Meanwhile Sadeepa Henderson clocked 12.26 secs, just a hundred of a second behind the qualifying time set at 12.25secs. 

She also finished the 200m dash with a time of 25.07secs. 

Sri Lanka could send seven athletes for the event and the Athletic Association of Sri Lanka will select the rest of the athletes considering their performance at the meet. 

There were several athletes who came close to the qualifying standard. Gayan Dharshana (St. Joseph’s College Colombo (triple jump), Hirusha Hashen (St. Peter’s College Colombo), Shanika Lakshani (Holy Cross College Gampaha (1500 mtrs), H.A.A.P. Hettiarachchi (Vihara Maha Devi Girls College Kandy (400 metres hurdles), B.M.H. I. Basnayake (Galigamuwa MV Alawwa) 3000 metres girls, N.A. Y. Sewandi of Thambuttegama Central College) triple jump, Gayan Dharshana (St, Joseph’s College Colombo) triple jump boys, and Kavindi Sanjana Edirisinghe (Janadhipathi Balika Nawala) 400 mtrs, came close to the qualifying standard. 

According to the Asian Youth Championships history Sri Lanka has won 1 Gold, 4 Silver and 1 Bronze. 

The first edition took place in 2015 where Sri Lanka bagged 1 Gold and 3 Silver medals.
 
At the last championships in 2017, Sri Lanka won 1 Silver and 1 Bronze.