Sabaragamuwa Champions of University Games Athletics 2019

By www.ceylonathletics.com | July 28, 2019 | English, Latest News, Top Stories

Former Youth Commonwealth Games Silver medalist and current high hurdles national champion, Roshan Dammika Ranatunga had an absolute blast as he won three Gold medals setting three new records in less than three hours as Sabaragamuwa University emerged champions of the Sri Lanka University Games Track and Field Championship 2019 concluded at the Sugathadasa Stadium on Sunday.

Sabaragamuwa University’s Roshan, who already had a Gold medal from the 4x100m relay on day one, had his high jump event starting at 9 a.m. and his 110m hurdles heat at 9.20 a.m. He clocked 15.12 seconds with ease to set a new meet record in the 110m hurdles and then returned to the high jump to register 2.06m and set another new meet record. At 10.30 a.m. he was competed in the men’s triple jump final, where he leapt 15.45m to set a new meet record, then returned to 110m hurdles final at 11.40 a.m. to clock 14.64 seconds: eclipsing the record he had set a little over two hours previously and finishing with four Gold medals in total and four new meet records.

In the other events of the day Mohommad Nifras of Colombo University, who set a new 800m record on Saturday, clocked 4 minutes and 50 seconds to set a new meet record in the 1500m event; while the Sabaragamuwa men’s 4x400m relay team set a new meet record clocking 3 minutes and 24.75 seconds. Gihan Ranaweera of Colombo University emerged the fastest athlete of the championship as he won the 100m Gold medal with a time of 11.19 seconds, completing a sprinting double after winning the Gold medal in the 200m yesterday.

In the women’s events it was former South Asian Games Silver medalist Omaya Udayangani from Sabaragamuwa University who shone brightest, winning five Gold medals. Omaya, who broke the 200m record yesterday in winning that race and the women’s 4x100m relay heats, set another new meet record when she won her pet event, the 400m clocking 56.30 seconds without much pressure from competition as the second placed athlete was more than six seconds behind. After setting that record at 2 p.m., Omaya returned to the 100m finals just 30 minutes later and there was no one to stop her from going for another Gold medal as she clocked 12.69 seconds. In doing so she completed a rare sprint triple: winning Gold medals in the 100m, 200m and 400m. An hour after her 100m triumph she was anchoring the Sabaragamuwa University women’s 4x400m relay team to victory: the resulting Gold medal her fifth and the third within just one and a half hours.

National Sports Festival champion triple jumper Hashini Prabodha Balasooriya from the University of Sri Jayawardanapura leaped a winning 12.91m to set a new meet record in the women’s triple jump, taking the total of new meet records to 12 set within two days.

Defending champions Sabaragamuwa University totally dominated once again, finishing with 248 points: well ahead of second placed Sri Jayawardenepura University’s 146 and third placed Colombo University’ 100 points.

Overall Points Tally (Athletics)