First Major Athletics Event of the year is here
Sri Lanka Athletics (SLA) is set to conduct the first major National and Junior national athletics competition today (10) at the Sugathadasa Stadium Colombo. The trials are open to athletes who meet the required qualification standard.
Competition which will see both senior and junior (under-20) athletes competing in all events, including relays. The National team will be competing eyeing to qualify for the forthcoming Asian Games to be held in China from 10 to 25 September.
Senior official and record keeper of SLA, Saman Kumara Gunawardana, stated that all Elite and National pools will be updated based on results of this competition, and regardless of any past performance, except for athletes who receive medical exemption due to injury or athletes who are training overseas, it will be compulsory for all National athletes to participate.
The 3-day competition will also be used to form a Junior National pool to compete in the South Asian Junior Athletics championship which will be hosted by Sri Lanka later this year, as they did in 2018.
Thrills
This year’s competition will see a new National winner in the Women’s 400m and Men’s 100m. Yupun Abeykoon, the country’s fastest 100m runner, Olympian and South Asian record holder, will not be featuring as he has already gone back to Italy, where he is based, though he trained in Sri Lanka last month. National Champion Himasha Eashan, too, will not feature in the 100m as he is serving a provisional suspension after testing positive for a banned substance for the second time. This will see a new senior men’s 100m champion emerging during the meet.
Meanwhile, the return of Rumeshika Rathnayaka, the former South Asian 100m Gold medalist, will see an exciting 100m final with current champion Amasha de Silva too in top form. Both athletes have clocked below 11.6 seconds before.
Spills
Country’s best 400m female runners, Dilshi Kumarasinghe and Nadeesha Ramanayaka, will not feature in the competition as both suffer from ankle injuries days ahead of the Championship. This will see a new 400m senior women’s champion emerge, a title which was shared by this duo during the last five years. It will also hamper the scheduled 4x400m relay where the National team will be toothless without their two best runners.
Meanwhile, Medhani Jayamanne who shone during the World Junior championship last year, may not feature in the championship as she has recently recovered from COVID-19. In addition, the GCE (A/L) exam too has hampered her chances to compete, especially in the 200m, where she has a paper on the same day. It is the same case for a few other junior athletes too.
