Sabaragamuwa dominates University Games

South Asian Games Silver medalist Omaya Udayangani and this year’s World University Games participant Gihan Ranaweera dazzled to take 200m honours as six new meet records were set at the Sri Lanka University Games Athletics Championship 2019 which commenced at Sugathadasa Stadium on Saturday

Omaya, hailing from Welimada, won the Silver medal in the women’s 4x400m relay and the Bronze medal in the 400m dash as a teenager during the 2016 South Asian Games before entering the University of Sabaragamuwa. Omaya, who represented Sri Lanka in the World University Games in Italy earlier this month, clocked 25.21 seconds, a modest timing by her standards; but it was enough to set a new meet record as she comfortably won the event with more than two seconds to spare before second placed G.I. Srimali came in.

Gihan, who hails from St. Sylvester’s College Kandy and now studies at the University of Colombo, was the fastest of the day as he clocked 22.60 seconds to win the men’s 200m, edging out J.M. Insaaf of the University of Sri Jayawardenepura who clocked 22.76 seconds.

Subhani Abeyrathne, the former St. Joseph’s BV sprinter from Kegalle who now studies at the University of Sabaragamuwa, clocked 1 minute 06.21 seconds in the women’s 400m hurdles, shattering the meet record and finishing more than five second ahead of the competition.

The Sabaragamuwa 4x100m relay team set a new meet record in the 4x100m heats and then eclipsed it in the finals with a time of 42.49 seconds for the Gold medal. The other track record came in the men’s 800m event where Mohommad Nifras of the University of Colombo clocked 1 minute 54.26 seconds to win the Gold medal.

Ashen Jayawardene from Jayawardenepura university , who hails from Chilaw, set a new meet record with a throw of 39.36m in the discus throw, while B. Lavanan of Peradeniya University set a new meet record of 3.91m in the men’s pole vault event. 

Parami’s Sister strikes Gold

Dilhani Fernando, the elder sister of Sri Lanka’s only Youth Olympic medalist Parami Wasanthi Marisstella, won the Gold medal in her pet event, the 800m with a time of 2 minutes 21.02 seconds.

The chief guest of the event, Asian Championship Silver medalist and Sri Lanka record holder in the women’s 800m, Gayanthika Abeyrathne presented the medal to Dilhani. Both Dilhani and Gayanthika were thrilled following the presentation, as Gayanthika has been sheltering Dilhani during her stay in Colombo. Dilhani was an up and coming 800m junior athlete during her school days and even won the Youth Asian Games’ Bronze medal for the event back in 2013, but later opted to further her studies at the University of Sabaragamuwa: at which point her sister Parami picked up from where Dilhani left off.

Tomorrow (Sunday) is the last day of the competition, and will include the 100m and 400m finals; while former Youth Commonwealth Silver medalist and present national champion in the 110m hurdles, Roshan Dammika – who has already won the 4x100m relay Gold medal for the Sabaragamuwa team – will seek to raise his individual tally to four Gold medals by winning the high jump, 110m hurdles and triple jumps.

The defending champions, University of Sabaragamuwa leads the points table with 116 points, with the University of Sri Jayawardenepura (73) and University of Colombo (49) lagging far behind.

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