Parami clocked a PB and sets a new National Junior record
Steeple Chase runner Parami Wasanthi Marisstella impressed by setting a new personal best and a National junior record when she finished fifth in 10 minutes 20.12 seconds in the 3000m Steeple Chase heat at the IAAF World Junior Championship which started at Tampere, Finland on Tuesday (10th July).
Parami the 17 – year – old Asian Junior and Youth Champion competed with the Under 20 athletes in an international field as it would give her good exposure ahead of the Youth (U-18) Olympic Games.
Parami is the world number one in the 2000m Steeple Chase in the under 18 category and will be the favourite when she competes in Argentina at the Youth Olympics in October.
Meanwhile, 800m runner Dilshi Kumarasinghe made a tactical error when she ran behind the bunch, as she seemed to struggle to get going in a slow race and finished last in the heat with a time of 2 minutes 12.91 seconds while the winner clocked a mere 2 minutes 11.30 seconds. Dilshi’s timing when she won the Asian Junior in Japan last year was 2 minutes 04 .53 seconds and she had clocked better than 2 minutes 11 seconds on numerous occasions earlier. It’s also worth mentioning that the Sri Lanka team arrived in Finland just a day ahead of the event, while athletes from other countries had been training in Finland for nearly two weeks prior to the championship.
Now all eyes will be on the quarter miler Aruna Darshana who will carry Sri Lanka’s hopes for their first World Junior medal in history.
The golden boy hailing from Kanthale who reminisced an early days Sugath Thilakaratne when he shattered the Asian Junior record to win the 400m Gold in Japan with a 45.79 second timing, the best by any Sri Lankan since 2006.
His time was ranked 4th on paper: There are four entries with better timings before him on paper but with the competition rule limiting to just two athletes per country, one Jamaican athlete out of the top three will have to sit out leaving two Jamaicans and one US athlete ahead of Aruna. But, the time of 45.79 which is considered in comparison, wasn’t Aruna’s best.
He was very relaxed when he clocked that time and won the Asian Juniors and it was visible that he had much energy left in the tank. Also, the silver at the last World Junior Championship was won in a time of 46.21 seconds which lit up further hopes for a medal for Aruna at the World Juniors.
The Athlete from the Weerakeppetipola National School, Akuramboda in the Matale District took part in his final training session on Monday in Finland with his coach Asanka Rajakaruna getting ready for the making of history, by winning Sri Lanka’s first ever world junior medal.
