Four Athletes to make Senior international debut in Thai-Open
Athletics Association (AASL) will send eight athletes for the forthcoming Thailand Open Athletics Championship to be held from May 04th to 07th.
Team selected, had excluded the top notch elite pool to give exposure to some National Champions who had performed consistently on the local arena without getting much exposure internationally, in recent times.
Team includes Olympian Sumedha Ranasinghe, who is the most experienced member of the lineup. Having represented Sri Lanka at the 2016 Rio Olympic Games with a personal best of 83.03m, Sumedha had a disappointing outing as he had not crossed the 80m mark even once, since the early 2016 South Asian Games.
After several disappointing displays, Sumedha showed glimpses of his early portrayals with a 76.82m throw during the selection trials early this year coming second behind Sampath Ranasinghe who threw 81.22m. But, Sampath flopped during the Commonwealth Games with a 70.15m throw in the javelin finals paving the way for Sumedha as the best SL thrower this year, and AASL had given him a chance to come back to his usual performance.
Meanwhile other male athletes in the team includes up and coming high jumper Ushan Thiwanka who had leapt 2.17m at the age of just 19 years but could not emulate that performance since then, even though he has been regularly around the 2.10m mark. Interestingly this will be the first senior tour for Ushan.
Middle distance runner Kupun Kushantha will also make his senior International debut and Kupun had been a regular performer in the local athletics arena shining in 800m and 1500m. Former Nalandian runner had clocked a best of 1 minute 49.96 seconds in 800m where he is eyeing to make the Asian Games squad for the event.
Another up and coming jumper Greshan Dhananjaya will be a good competitor in both the triple and long jump. Dhananjaya who placed fourth in both events in the Asian Junior Championship 2016 had been in impressive form on the local athletics stage during recent times as he placed third at the selection trials early this year with a leap of 7.64m.
Long Jumper Anjani Pulwansa will make her international debut for Sri Lanka during the tour. Former Gateway athlete has been a regular performer locally leaping over 5.90m several times. Defending National Champion trains under Cuban coach Luis Miranda for the event had been trying to go past the 6m mark several times without success and she will eye to break the barrier in Thailand.
The iron women of Sri Lanka, Lakshika Sugandhi will be the one to watch during the meet as she gets the rare opportunity to perform internationally despite being a regular champion. Sugandhi, the defending National Champion in the heptathlon and SL record holder as well as national champion in 100m hurdle had also dipped under 12 seconds in 100m. She had been continuously shattering her own SL mark in the heptathlon and will again try to do so in Thailand.
Golden girl from Amgamuwa CC, Yamani Dulanjali will also be making her first senior tour during the meet. Yamani who won the 400m hurdles in the Asian Youth Championship back in 2015 had a injury filled season followed by the Advance level Exam, but she performed well during last year clocking 55 seconds in 400m and she will be eyeing to make her personal best for her pet event, the 400m hurdles.
Nadeesha Ramanayaka the southern 400m runner who clocked under 55 seconds to win the National Sports Festival will be the other member of the team who will also be making her international debut for Sri Lanka.
Team :
Men: Sumedha Ranasinghe (Javelin Throw) ,Kupun Kushantha (800m,1500m), Greshan Dhananjaya (Long Jump ), Ushan Thiwanka(High Jump)
Women: Lakshika Sugandhi (Heptathlon ) , Anjani Pulwansa (Long jump) ,Nadeesha Ramanayaka( 400m), Yamani Dulanjali (400m hurdle)
Coach: – Sampath Weerasinghe
Manager: – WGM Thushara (AASL committee member)
