Sooriyawewa 800m battle moves to Qatar
During early 2000 when Sri Lanka dominated sprinting in the Asian region many Sri Lankans were favorites to win the Gold medal when they entered Asian level competitions. But for the last ten years none of the Sri Lankan athletes could get into competitions with such a standard until now, where the team captain and defending Gold medalist Nimali Liyanarachchi is set to start as favourite in the 800m event.
To top that, one of her closest competitors is going to be her fellow countrywoman Gayanthika Abeyrathne, who won Silver in the last edition. The duo from Sri Lanka could dominate the event, reviving echoes of past glory which the island nation enjoyed in the Asian region when Damayanthi Darsha and Susanthika Jayasinghe dominated the sprints.
“Practice has been good and as far as I understand even the other top competitors are also within my timing range in the event, where I have big hopes of winning another Gold medal’, said Nimali.
The success story of the 800m had a lot to do with authorities persisting in sending both halves of the 800m duo to most of the major competitions since 2015, where the competition between two former training mates helped them to thrive in the Asian region.
Duo continue duel in Doha
This is going to be Nimali’s fourth Asian Championship and the third of Gayanthika’s. After Nimali had not had impressive outings at the 2013 Asian Championship and 2014 Commonwealth Games, selectors left her out from the 2014 Asian Games where Gayanthika Abeyrathne got the nod; but she too failed to win a medal and finished sixth.
Following that the AASL sent both athletes out to the 2015 Asian Championship where Nimali was the only medalist in the championship.
Since then the duo have been in competition each other regularly at the international level, where Nimali won the Gold medal in the 2016 South Asian Games, Silver at the 2016 Asian Indoor Championship, three Gold medals at the 2016 Asian Grand Prix and a Gold at the 2017 Asian Athletics Championship.
Gayanthika too had success over the years as she won Silver at the 2016 SAG, a Gold medal in the 2017 Asian Indoor Games, a Silver medal at the Asian Championship 2017, a Gold medal at the 2017 Asian Grand Prix – beating India’s Asian Games medalist Tintu Luka – and a Gold medal at the Asian Indoor Games 2018 (1500m).
“Having both of us compete together has really helped our performances. Even in Sri Lanka I ran 2 minutes 2 seconds twice this year that was due to the competition which I got with both of us competing. That’s the same when we compete internationally.
Also, since we are going together into international events it helps us to overcome easily any nervousness we may have prior to the event”, said Nimali.
Gayanthika and Nimali both hail from Sooriyawewa and used to train under the same coach, Sujith Abeysekara years ago, before Gayanthika came under coach Sajith Jayalal and a healthy rivalry grew between the two athletes for the 800m honours, which saw Dammika Menike’s 800m record shattered after two decades.
“Many doubted our ability to go beyond the 2 minute 3 seconds mark, but once we broke those barriers we got in to the 2 minute 2 seconds timing, which I have clocked a few times now and what is left is to go beyond that timing now’, added Nimali.
