Santhush in semis with personal best

Young sprinter Shalika Santhush Weerasinghe clocked his personal best 21.72 seconds in the 200m and advanced to the semi-finals as the 12 fastest of all at the IAAF World Youth Championship continued in Kenya yesterday(14th).

Competing from lane six Santhush was in the fastest heat of all and he could finish fifth even though he ran 21.72 seconds. His timing was better than two third place finishers of the third and fourth heats as he will compete in semi-finals today.

Santhush Weerasinghe is trained under coach Amila Prasanna and is the brightest young sprinter in Sri Lanka. He won the Gold Medal at the Children of Asia sports games held in Russia last year competing in the Under-16 category and Santhush is still 16 though he competes in the Under-18 category.

Meanwhile, another of Amila’s athletes, Ravishka Indrajith qualified for the 400m semi-finals in the championship, but ended his campaign at the semi-finals finishing 7th and 18th overall.

meanwhile 2000m steeple Chase runner Asmika Herath finished in disappointing 14th position with 08 minutes 09.23 seconds . Asmika ran under 7 minutes when she qualified for the World event  and it’s unfortunate that she could not performe the same specially competing in a better track in a better competitive race.
(AK)