Top SL Athletes need more competitions to qualify for Olympics
Covid19 continue to hamper competition calendar in 2021 too where lack of competition hinders Sri Lankan athletes’ chances of qualifying for major international events, including this year’s Tokyo Olympic Games, as they need more competition to get a better performance score to be ranked higher in the world.
For example, Young Dilshi Kumarasinghe who clocked 02 minute 02.80 seconds to win the National Athletics Championship beating two Asian medalists, Nimali Liyanarachchi and Gayanthika Abeyrathne, is placed second in Asia’s fastest 800m runners this year ahead of Nimali and Gayanthika.
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However, in world rankings, Dilshiis placed 6th in Asia while Nimaliis placed 3rd and Gayanthika 5th. This is due to both Nimali and Gayanthika having more competitions under their belt where they showed continued performances throughout the ranking period, while Dilshi- who’s just coming into senior athletics – got only two proper 800m races under her belt for the last two years.
The world ranking is calculated considering the top five performances of each ranking period; hence, it’s important to compete in at least ten competitions where they can perform well in at least half of those and get their ranking up, since they can’t be expected to run their personal best every time they compete.
Another example. The Men’s 4x100m relay team who placed 6th in the Commonwealth Games in April 2018, had only competed once thereafter, which was in December 2019 during the South Asian Games, which reflects lack of opportunities for SL athletes at international level.
Also, World Athletics has categorized each competition, and performance at top ranked competitions such as area competitions will yield bonus points for athletes, which will come in handy when calculating world ranking positions. Hence, it will be important to send the country’s top ranked athletes to better competitions next year, as well as for athletes to understand the importance of going for their personal best during a competition – such as Asian Championship – rather than at local competitions.
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