800m Battle to continue in India
800m duo Gayanthika and Nimali eye podium against the odds at Bhubaneswar
The battle for 800m supremacy between Nimali Liyanarachchi and Gayanthika Abeyrathne is set to resume in Bhubaneshwar at the Asian Athletics Championship 2017 set to start on Wednesday (5th).
The event is a prime medal target as Gayanthika has already beaten the defending champion, India’s Tintu Luka, during the Asian Grand Prix early this year and the islander will hope for one more such race which would give Sri Lanka their first Gold medal at the Asian Championship in 8 years.
This will be the second time the pair will be battling it out for 800m glory in an Asian Championship, as both of them competed at the 2015 Asian Championship where Nimali secured Sri Lanka’s only medal finishing third while Gayanthika was out of the podium.
Since then the performance of both have improved significantly where both went below the SL record twice, once in Jaffna and once in Diyagama. The last time it was Gayanthika who came on top in 02.02.55 seconds while Nimali finished second after a keenly contested battle with 02:02.57 seconds.
Gayanthika then went on to beat defending Asian Championship champion, India’s Tintu Luka, at the Asian Grand Prix third leg securing Gold while Nimali finished third.
Hailing from the same village (Suriyawewa), both Nimali and Gayanthika have brought new hope for Sri Lanka as well as for Asia in the 800m, as their battle has now taken them to greater heights.
The pair had even been in the middle of controversy last year where former record holder Dammika Manike and Susanthika Jayasinghe criticized the system and stated their record is invalid after the pair shattered the SL record in Jaffna without electronic timing, but both gave their answer within a few months by shattering the SL record once again by more than a second, which silenced all those critics.
Nimali has not been up to her usual best since then due to a minor injury, where her coach said she needed specific spikes which suited her feet. Nevertheless she returned to form during the last National trials and both of them will be eyeing the podium during the Asian Championship.
There is no doubt India’s Tintu Luka will be looking to take revenge over Gayanthika, but ‘hired athlete’ Manal Elbahraoio of Bahrain who has clocked 2:00.82 seconds when she was running for Morocco, could be the biggest threat to the medal hopes for real Asians, where the SL pair, India’s Tintu Luka as well as China’s Zhao Jing will be looking to overcome.
