Aruna’s Junior World C’ship dream ends in Semis

The Golden boy, Aruna Darshana had to bow out from the individual 400m of the world junior championship as he finished fifth in the semi-finals at Finland on Thursday (12th).

Competing from the lane six of the toughest semi-final out of three, Aruna clocked 46.8, which is much below than his Asian Junior winning time of 45.79 or south Asian junior winning time of 46.55 seconds . It was visible that cold weather in Finland had affected his run but overall Aruna had a disappointing outing on Thursday night.

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Aruna who trains under Asanka Rajakaruna , had to compete in the most difficult semi-finals of 400m which saw Jamaican National Champion, nick named ‘Next Bolt’ Christoper Taylor with 44.88 pb ,US U-20 number 1 Howard Fields with pb of 45.50 and Canadian sub 46 runner Khamal Stewart-baynes with pb of 45.98 seconds competing .Total of four runner with sub 46 seconds performance competed to get two automatic qualification spot for the finals in that semifinals.

The SL team only arrived in Finland just a day prior to the competition where top athletes such as Indian 400m Gold medalist Hima Das was training in Europe for a month with several competition under their belt in Europe leading up for the world juniors.

Earlier sprinter Amasha de Silva who came to the semi-finals of 100m finished 8th with 11.86 seconds and bow out from the championship. Amasha hailing from Swarnamali GC Kandy trained under Sanjeewa Weerakkody won two silver medal from 100m and 200m and bronze in 4x400m relay at Asian Junior championship in Japan but opt to run only 100m at World Juniors .

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After record breaking performance in Japan, Aruna Darshana started his bid to win the World Junior title on Wednesday (11th) at Finland ,where he won the 400m heat.
The golden boy hailing from Kanthale who reminisces early days of Sugath Thilakaratne when he shattered the Asian Junior record to win the 400m Gold in Japan with a 45.79 seconds timing, the best by any Sri Lankan since 2006.

His time was ranked 4th on paper. But, the time of 45.79 which is considered in comparison, wasn’t Aruna’s best as he was very much relaxed when he clocked that time and won the Asian Juniors and was visible that he had much energy left in the tank. Also, the silver at the last World Junior Championship was won in a time of 46.21 seconds which lit up further hopes about a medal for Aruna at the World Juniors but unfortunately it did not come true in Finland Athlete hailing from Weerakeppetipola NS ,Akuramboda in the Matale District along with his coach Asanka Rajakaruna is eyeing to make history by winning Sri Lanka’s first ever world junior medal yet their journey cut short in semis .But SL will be still hoping for a medal from the boys 4x400m relay which too has good chance of a podium finish .