Himasha to leave early for training ahead of Asian Championship
Sprinter Himasha Eashan who holds the South Asian record of the 100m will leave to Qatar tomorrow (13th) where he will have about a week training prior to the 23rd Asian Athletics Championship which will be held from April 21-24 at Khalifa stadium, Qatar where the world championship is been held.
Eashan who lowered his South Asian record recently during the first National selection trials clocking 10.22 seconds is in prime form ahead of 23rd Asian Championship.
This is Eashan’s third Asian Championship where he competed in 2015 edition in Wuhan, China and 2017 edition in Bhubaneshwar , India even though he could not come into finals in both occasions.
on both those occasion, 4x100m relay had been the focus of sprinters as Sri Lanka was well within medal range in the event even though they finished fourth in both occasions.
But this year there are no relay team competing for Sri Lanka where Eashan has luxury of focusing only about the individual event where he has already shown glimpse of what to come during Asian Championship as he clocked 10.22 seconds shattering the south Asian record while also clocked wind-aided 10.11 seconds, fastest time by a Sri Lankan in any condition.
Eashan will leave to Qatar with his coach Chaminda Perera tomorrow (13th) despite rest of the team has only been facilitated to leave by 18th as Eashan is hoping to make most of the opportunity he got this time around.
The 23 year Asian Junior Silver medalist and South Asian Gold medalist did not have good seasons in 2017 or 2018 following his SAG Gold in 2016 but return as a completely different sprinter in 2019 shattering records and winning race after race with impressive times.
“Our Target was to clock 10.10 seconds in the first competition of the year. There was a bit of plus wind where I was able to clock 10.11 seconds in heat and 10.12 seconds in the semi-finals. So very happy about the way it started. My Target is to go for medal and clock sub 10 seconds at Asian Championship.“ said Eashan after his record-breaking run.
