Ushan leaps 2.30m , SA record , step closer to Olympics
Ushan Thiwanka Perera shattered the Sri Lanka high jump record once again with a leap of 2.30m in the Lone Star Conference Championship held in Canyon, USA . It is also a new South Asian record as he surpassed the 2.29m set by India’s Tejaswin Shankar in April 2018.
His performance is ranked as the second-highest in Division II and Lone Star Conference history, while also tying him in this year’s collegiate performance list with LSU’s JuVaughn Harrison, and extends his school record.
It also elevated his rank to number one in the Asian top list, on par with two Japanese Takasi Eto and Naoto Tobe, while it was also the third equal best performance in the world this year, which places him among the seven best high jumpers in the world.
Ushan started the competition with a warm up jump of 2.11m, and then cleared 2.14m and 2.17m in one attempt. He then cleared 2.20m and was the lone competitor from there onwards. He cleared 2.25m also with one attempt and directly tried 2.30m next, which he cleared in his third attempt.
World Athletics has set Tokyo Olympics direct qualification at 2.33m, and Ushan has been tasked with one of the most difficult Olympic qualification set by any sport in the world. To put into context, Bohdan Bondarenko of Ukraine won the 2016 Rio Olympic Games Bronze medal clearing 2.33m, and Erik Kynard of USA won the Silver medal in 2012 clearing 2.32m. Also, 2.33m is higher than the Gold medal winning mark at the Asian Championship 2019, Commonwealth Games 2018 or the Asian Games 2018.
Ushan has one more option to make it to the best 32 jumpers in the world (who will qualify for the Olympics), and this is through the World Ranking system where he is currently in 61st place. This performance will get him into the 40s, but he will have to leap twice or thrice in the 2.30m range to make the cut. Several jumpers who had cleared a lower height than Ushan have made the Olympic cut from the World Ranking system, as they participated at some of the world’s highest ranked competitions, while Ushan did not get a single chance to compete at such a competition, and lost the opportunity to participate at the only available higher ranked competition, the Asian Championship, which was postponed due to COVID-19 .
Ushan said he has three more competitions before the Tokyo 2020 Olympic qualification deadline on 29 June.
The 23-year-old High Jumper, who now studies at the Texas A&M University-Commerce, broke the 16-year-old Sri Lanka National High Jump record by leaping 2.28m at the Texas Relay Championship just over a month ago on 28 March. Ushan broke the record of 2.27m set by former Olympian Manjula Kumara Wijesekara in 2004, and equaled it in 2005.
He has had an amazing season this year breaking several records, including his college record and Sri Lanka Indoor record (2.26m).
Ushan left the country on a scholarship last year to Texas A&M University-Commerce. The former Maris Stella College athlete, who trained under Senarath Fernando during his school days, won the South Asian Silver medal and had a personal best of 2.24m when he left to the USA on scholarship.
Ushan had a difficult childhood as both his parents suffered from polio. He was even compelled to sell his car, which he won when he was adjudged the best athlete at the 2019 National Sports Festival, to finance his trip to the USA. However, that did not stop the determined athlete from achieving great heights in his life, and he is now a step closer to his Olympic dream.
