Anitha vaults for New Sri Lanka record

Jaffna’s vaulting queen Anitha Jagatheshwaran stole the limelight in the very first meet of the newly laid Sugathadasa track leaping over 3.55m in the pole vault to set a new Sri Lanka record at the Junior National Athletics championship that started yesterday.

Anitha who was waiting for hours untill the under-20 girls finished their vaulting event as both the under-20 and 23 events started together, first vaulted 3.50m erasing her own SL record of 3.48m then vaulted 3.55m. She then attempted at 3.60m but without success.

Meanwhile, there were several other impressive performances on the first day where high jumper Ushan Thiwanka excelled in the morning leaping over 2.20m to become the third best high jumper of Sri Lanka behind Manjula Kumara Wijesekara (2.27m) and Nalin Priyantha (2.21m). Former Maris Stella College athlete warmed up nicely for his first senior international event the Thai Open where he will compete early next month and showed he is ready to fill the void after Manjula Kumara Wijesekara in the men’s high jump event.

St. Peter’s College athletes excelled with two new meet records as Hirusha Hashen leapt 7.09m in the long jump for under-16 boys while also clocking an impressive time in the 200m eyeing for three gold medals as he did in the under-15 events last year.

Rumesh Tharanga was the other Peterite to set a record throwing 55.34m in the discus throw for boys under-16.

Meanwhile, sprinter from Akuramboda CC clocked a dazzling 21.64 seconds in the 200m heats for boys under-20 erasing the record set by Shehan Ratwatte (21.74 seconds) of Trinity College. He is horning up for the 200m, 400m double and to represent Sri Lanka in the two events and the 4x400m at the South Asian Junior and Asian Junior Championships.

Bishops’ College thrower Ovini Chandrasekara achieved 11.91m in the girls under-16 shot put event for a new meet record.

Nevertheless, the most impressive performance was by middle distance runner, Dilshi Kumarasinghe of A. Ratnayake CC Walala who clocked 2 minutes 9.13 seconds to remove AAN Sanjeewani’s record of 2:12.33 seconds set 14 years ago. The other record of the day was set by sprinter Kavindi Edirisinghe of Janadhipathi BC who clocked 25.86 seconds in the 200m for girls under-16.

The Junior National Championship will be used as the selection trials for the South Asian Junior Athletics Championship to be held at the same venue on 5-6 May and for the Asian Junior Athletics Championship to be held in Japan in June.