Can she cope up with Colombo Heat ? Hiruni Coming down to Colombo for Nationals

She has represented Sri Lanka for years, across continents running the World Championship in London, Asian Games in Jakarta and Commonwealth Game in Gold Coast apart from a number of international marathons, but she has never competed at a National track event in Sri Lanka.

Well, that’s going to change as Sri Lanka record holder of Marathon and 10000m, Hiruni Wijayaratne coming down to Colombo to compete in the National Athletics championship which is to be held from August 16-18 at Sugathadasa Stadium, Colombo.

The USA based marathoner will compete in both the 5000m and 10000m track events aiming to Qualify for the forthcoming 2019 South Asian Games to be held in Nepal in December as the Athletics Association (AASL) will make the SAG team from the performance of the National championship.

She clocked a personal best of.33 minutes 55.06  seconds for the 10000m in Portland last year, a new Sri Lanka record. Her personal best of 16:41.58 seconds in the 5000m, which she achieved earlier this year, is 20 seconds shy of the present Sri Lanka record set by Suleewa Nilmini Jayasena in 2003.

Surely, local athletes who had been dominating distance running recent times won’t go down without a fight while Hiruni will have a hard time adjusting to Colombo’s heat , where two distance running thrillers set on cards for August. Earlier she competed in the LSR Colombo Marathon a few years ago, running half marathon event which was her first National athletics event in Sri Lanka.

Hiruni represented Sri Lanka during the 2017 IAAF World Championship in London and has already qualified to compete in her pet event, the Marathon in the 2019 IAAF World Championship to be held in Doha She was also the first Asian woman to complete. Commonwealth Games Marathon last time, finishing in 11th place.

Additionally, Hiruni has represented, Sri Lanka in the Asian Games, running in the 10000m in her first major international track event and is Sri Lanka’s, best bet to qualify for the 2020 Tokyo Olympic Games. More About Hiruni ?- Just click here