Amasha wins Silver with seasonal best

400m runners Kalinga Kumarage and Nadeesha Ramanayaka advanced to the finals while Nimali finished third in the 800m of the 60th Inter State championship continued at India .

Kalinga clocked 46.84 seconds to win the second heat with ease, while Nadeesha beat 400m Asian Games Gold medalist V.K. Visamya but finished second behind Poovamma Raju clocking 54.65 seconds to advance to the finals. Kalinga had a relatively easy path to the final, as the top four 400m runners of India were not competing in the individual 400m.

They are within the top 16 in the 4x400m relay for the Tokyo Olympics, and hence, focusing on the relay to run a better time on the 29th to further improve their chances at the Olympics. In the absence of their top 400m runners, India does not have an athlete who has run under 47 seconds before, which means Kalinga should easily win the Gold in the final.

Kalinga also won the 200m heats in the afternoon with ease to advance to the final. In the women’s 800m, Nimali Liyanarachchi secured the Bronze medal with time of 2 :05 .69 sec