Hiruni bounces back clocking second fastest marathon time
Exactly a year after her South Asian Games Gold medal run, US based Sri Lanka marathoner Hiruni Wijayarathne clocked her second fastest time in the Valencia Marathon in Spain with a time of 2 hours 36 minutes 10 seconds on Sunday (6th December), after a dismal run in the World Half marathon earlier in the year.
Her timing is second only to her own Sri Lanka record of 2 hours 34 minutes 10 seconds which she set in Germany last year. She was on course to break that record during the race clocking 1 hour and 17 minutes at the halfway mark, but slowed down slightly in the last few kilometers, though she tried desperately to catch up during the 30km to 40km stretch maintaining a steady pace of 15.7 kmph compared to her early 20 kmphto maintain an average of 16.2-3 kmph.
At last, I ran my first marathon since winning the South Asian Games🏆 It wasn’t all that I had hoped for, but it was a…
Posted by Hiruni Wijayaratne on Sunday, December 6, 2020
Hiruni, who celebrated her 31st birthday yesterday, was determined to target the Olympic qualification mark or go under the Sri Lanka record, but she found herself competing with one of the world’s fastest women’s marathoner Peres Jepchirchir of Kenya who clocked 2 hours 17.16 seconds to win the event. She had to battle hard to stay in the race and finished 32nd, which is the second fastest marathon time by a South Asian athlete.
Hiruni is pursuit of the Tokyo Olympic direct qualification standard which is 2 hours 29.30 seconds, which is 15 minutes and 30 seconds faster than the 2016 Olympic qualification time of 2 hours 45 minutes.
“I’ll keep trying till the last day. That’s the best I can do. The wind was very difficult here, so I lost some time the second half. Hopefully USA gets Covid19 vaccine soon and I can get back to normal marathon training” added Hiruni.
Hiruni missed out from the 2016 Rio Olympic Games qualification despite running a better time than the qualification time, as she achieved this time outside the period of eligibility to qualify for the Games. Thereafter, she has vastly improved as a marathoner representing Sri Lanka at many international competitions. Currently she holds four main Sri Lanka National records – 10000m, 5000m, Marathon and Half Marathon – while also having won the South Asian Gold medal in the marathon last year, marking the first time in history Sri Lanka won the women’s marathon Gold medal at the SAG.
Hiruni represented Sri Lanka at the 2017 World Championship, 2019 World Championship and 2018 Commonwealth Games in the Marathon, and also ran the 10000m during the 2018 Asian Games. During 2018 Commonwealth Games in Gold Coast Australia she was the only one from the Asian continent to finish the women’s marathon.
Hiruni has knack for bouncing back with amazing performance once she faces a setback. In 2019 she shattered her own Sri Lanka record clocking 2 hours 34 minutes 10 seconds at the Düsseldorf marathon in Germany which enabled her to qualify for the 2019 World Championship in Doha, but she could not finish the race due to extreme weather condition, which marked the slowest race in the World Championship history. However, she soon bounced back with an amazing 2 hours 38.10 seconds in the Toronto Waterfront marathon in Canada.
This year she could not finish the World Half Marathon Championship a few months ago, but has now proved her capabilities once againin Spain.
Evans Chebet won the men’s marathon with a time of 2 hours 03.00 minutes.
World Record
In the men’s half marathon, 24-year-old Kenyan runner Kibiwott Kandie shattered the world record clocking 57 minutes 32 seconds.
In the women’s half marathon, former 1500m World champion and World record holder Genzebe Dibaba of Ethiopia , who was making her debut run,set a new course record by recording the fastest time of 1 hour 05 minutes 18 seconds.
