Youth athletes Seniru, Wasanthi picked in Super Pool

Royal College high jumper Tenuka Amarasinghe and Kuliyapitiya Central long distance runner Parami Wasanthi have been included in the Supper Pool, the top athletics pool as the Athletics Association of Sri Lanka looks to form a formidable team for up and coming events following the debacle at the Asian Games.

The Athletics Association of Sri Lanka has formed three pools namely, Super Pool, Elite Pool and National Pool to nurture track and field athletes for future events including next year’s South Asian Games.

The AASL is going to seek Sports Ministry funding for the athletes in the top two pools.

The Super Pool is for the athletes who finished among the top six at the recently held Asian Games and the Commonwealth Games and those who have performances worthy of or above 1100 points according to the IAAF points table,” AASL statistician Saman Kumara said.

“That category is also open to athletes in the top 50 world rankings in the Junior category and top ten world rankings in the Youth category,” he said.

Amarasinghe is currently ranked fourth in the world in the Youth Category for his leap of 2.14 metres at the Youth Olympics Qualifying meet in Thailand.

Wasanthi is ranked third in the world in the youth category and is also Asia’s number one in that category.

She clocked a then world-leading time of 6:35.20 seconds in the steeplechase at the Youth Olympics qualifying meet in Bangkok in July and also won the Asian Junior Championship gold

The Elite Pool is inclusive of athletes who took part in the Asian Games and Commonwealth Games and who have 1050 points for their achievements according to IAAF points table.

The National Pool is inclusive of athletes who have won their respective disciplines at the National Championships and who have produced the top performances of the year in each athletic discipline.