Injury Hampers Dilshi’s Olympic Dream
Sri Lanka’s Olympic dream in the Women’s 800m faded as prime contestant Dilshi Kumarasinghe was unable to continue after the 300m mark due to a hamstring injury at the National Athletics Championship Stage 1 held at Sugathadasa Stadium.
Sri Lanka Athletics (SLA) decided at the last minute to conduct the National Championship on Friday, mainly with the intention of giving a chance to the 800m runners to achieve Olympic qualification standard, as all three – Dilshi, Nimali Liyanarachchi and Gayanthika Abeyrathne – were within striking distance of grabbing a world ranking position and qualifying for the Olympics.
But Gayanthika’s fortunes were hampered when she injured herself two days ago and could not take part in the event. Conditions were not ideal for such an important competition, as the track was wet after heavy overnight rain, and with the rain continuing in the morning, chances of athletes suffering from cramps were high.
With Dilshi’s injury, Nimali too could not clock a good time, even though she won the event in 2 minutes 06.69 seconds. Dilshi and Nimali still have a chance of qualifying for the Olympics, but it will be extremely difficult as the National Championship was the only local competition which offered a bonus placing score of 100 for first place, which is vital when calculating world ranking.
They will either have to achieve direct qualification standard of 1:59.00 seconds or perform much better than their current PBs in higher ranked international competitions. With the current COVID-19 situation in the world, they have to be extremely lucky to get such an opportunity. Young Tharushi Karunarathne, however, clocked a personal best of 2:07.21 seconds in the event to achieve World Junior Championship qualification standard of 2:08.70 seconds.
Tharushi is the second athlete to qualify, after Shanika Lakshani achieved the feat during the last trials. Meanwhile, all other events too were hampered by rain. Amasha de Silva won the 100m in 11.89 seconds running against -1.5m/s wind. Shelinda Jansen finished second in 12.20 seconds, while Medhani finished third in 12.21 seconds. During the trials held earlier, Amasha clocked 11.65 seconds and teenager Medhani Jayamanne clocked a personal best of 11.93 seconds. In the men’s 100m Himasha Eashan renewed his own meet record clocking 10.38 seconds, but in the final against a heavy wind of -2.1 m/s, he could only manage 10.45 seconds.
