Nimali, Gayanthika find it tough

It was a day that needs to be forgotten in the Sri Lanka camp as their two middle distance runners Nimali Liyanarachchi and Gayanthika Abeyrathne finished in disappointing 7th and 8th positions respectively in the 800m heats.

Gayanthika, competing in the fastest heat won by world champion Caster Semenya, clocked 2 minutes 04.72 seconds while Nimali clocked a disappointing 2 minutes 08.52 seconds to finish seventh.
Nimali, the Asian champion of the event was in tears after the disappointing run and said that the disappointment was the result of not having the coach, Sujith Abeysekara beside her.
“It’s been 15 days since I last trained with my coach. If he was here to train me I would have done better,” said Nimali who had her coach Abeysekara by her side when she won the Asian Gold medal.
“We only get to compete in these kinds of world class races maybe once a year, which is not enough. It will be better if we could get more races during a year and I hope my coach will be with me in future meets,” said Nimali.
Meanwhile, shuttler Niluka Karunaratne found himself out of the singles competition as he was beaten 2-0 by World number two Indian Srikanth Kidambi yesterday.