Heartbreak for Seniru, Finishes just outside podium in Youth Olympics
High Jumper Seniru Amarasinghe created history but was left heartbroken as he finished just outside the podium in fourth place at the Youth Olympic Games 2018 in Buenos Aires, Argentina .
Competing in the second stage of the high jump, the 17- year old Royalist equaled his personal best of 2.14m and finished fourth overall, which can be categorized as the best achievement by a Sri Lankan male athlete this year across any level.
Benefiting from training under the expert guidance of Cuban coach Luis Miranda, who is also coaching Olympian Manjula Kumara Wijesekara, Seniru showed great maturity to clear 2.14m and tie for third place with Oleh Doroshchuk of Ukraine. However, according to event rules, medals will be awarded taking into consideration the performance of both stages, where Oleh cleared 2.09m in the first stage while Seniru managed only 2.05m in cold weather.
“I’m really surprised that I managed to clear 2.14m. I actually did not think that I was going to make it, but I am really happy that I did. It was a good experience,” said Seniru after the event.
Seniru qualified for the event by finishing second in the Asian Qualification Trials, where Chinese Long Chen qualified as Asia’s number one and world number one. Chen maintained his supremacy clearing 2.22m in stage two and 2.13m in stage one to win the Gold Medal. Australian Oscar Myers, who just managed to clear 2.05m in the first stage and was placed 7th, cleared 2.22m in the second stage to win the Silver Medal. Arttu Mattila of Finland, who cleared 2.09m in the first stage and finished in second place, could only clear 2.07m in the second stage and finished in 9th position.
Seniru was earlier selected to represent the Sri Lanka Under-20 team at the South Asian Junior championship in Colombo, where he failed to impress, but since then he has been in excellent form as he cleared 2.14m and went to the Youth Olympic Games as equal fourth best jumper in the world (U-18).
Meanwhile, quarter miler Dilan Bogoda clocked 48.81 seconds and finished seventh in the finals of the 400m. Bogoda, who is just 17, dipped under the 49 seconds barrier twice during the competition to finished seventh overall. Bogoda was ranked way outside the best eight coming into the competition, but the determined youngster clocked his personal best of 48.52 seconds in the heats held on the 11thto reach the finals. Bogoda had earlier won the Gold Medal at the Youth Olympic Games Asian qualification trials in Bangkok, Thailand.
Sprinter Shelinda Jansen from Gateway College Colombo finished 5th in the 200m heats with a time of 25.00 seconds, and will compete in the second stage tomorrw(16th) .
