Four athletes qualify for the Youth Olympics
Quarter miler Dilan Bogoda, sprinter Shelinda Jansen, High Jumper Seniru Amarasinghe and 2000m Steeple Chase runner Parami Wasanthi Maristella qualified for the youth Olympic Games to be held from 6 to 16th October in Argentina. Bogoda and Wasanthi won their event at the Asian Qualification for the youth Olympics in Bangkok while Seniru and Shelinda finished 2nd and 4th to qualify.
Wasanthi, who won the 3000m steeple chase Gold medal at the Asian Junior (U-20) championship despite being only 17, clocked 6 minutes 35.20 seconds to win the 2000m steeple chase yesterday. Her time put her right on top of the world under-18 list, eclipsing the performance of the previous number one, France’s Claire Palou, with a time of 6 minutes 35.80 seconds. Wasanthi’s training partner Asmika Herath finished third in the race.
Wasanthi, daughter of a fisherman hailing from Chilaw, attends Kuliyapitiya Central College and trains under Janitha Jayasinghe, who was also the coach of her Asian Youth Games medalist sister Dilani Fernando.
Earlier, Bogoda hailing from Sir John Kothalawala College Kurunegala, clocked 48.58 seconds to win the 400m and book his place for the Youth Olympic Games.
Bogoda has a personal best of 48.55 seconds, which he clocked during the Junior Nationals in April. He was ranked the number one athlete in the 400m and lived up to expectations. 1500m runner Samuddika Herath finished fifth.
on the second day High Jumper Seniru then leapt a huge personal best of 2.14 metres to be placed second at the Asian trials to become the fourth SL athlete to qualify for the Youth Olympics. His performance also puts him in third place in the world youth high jump top list. His performance is also equivalent to a silver medal performance at the last Youth Olympics.
Seniru has gradually improved in high jump as he represented Sri Lanka in the South Asian Junior athletics championship then improved his personal best to leap 2.05m just days ago at the Western Province Schools athletic championship before increasing on his personal best further at Bangkok.
Earlier, Shelinda had a forgettable final when she clocked a modest 25.50 seconds in the final to be fourth after clocking a near PB of 24.99 earlier in the heats. But, she finished within the Asian quota for the Youth Olympic Games which is four – hence will get the chance to attend the Youth Olympic Games.
Shelinda has been part of Sri Lanka’s gold medal winning 4x100m relay team at the South Asian Junior Athletics Championship despite been 17 years of age while also sealing a South Asian Junior bronze medal in the 200m competing with the under-20 athletes.
She was ranked 9th in Asia when she left for the competition but had managed to finish within the top four to gain qualification. Seniru was ranked fifth in Asia before going to the competition.
200M runner Dineth Senenayaka could not impress as he finished last with disappointing 23.48 seconds.
The Youth Olympic Games will be held from 6-18 October at Buenos Aires, Argentina
