SLA fight logistic nightmare to send team to Kazakhstan

Sri Lanka’s hopes to further increase the number of athletes for the Tokyo Olympic Games were hampered by unfavorable weather during the first Stage of the National Athletics Championship 2021 held on 21 May at Sugathadasa Stadium, a few hours before the country imposed a ‘Travel Restriction’. None of the targeted athletes could perform as expected during the competition, while Dilshi Kumarasinghe, the prime contestant for an Olympic slot, could not finish the 800m due to cramp, running after heavy rain in cold weather.

Sri Lanka Athletics (SLA) is now fighting a logistic nightmare to send six athletes to the Kazakhstan Open Championship to give them a chance to perform and increase their World Athletics ranking to make the Olympic cut on ranking quota. This is a World Athletics bronze level competition which gives a bonus of 60 points for first place as a placing score, which is vital when it comes to calculating world ranking. “Sports Ministry has given the green light for the tour, but we have several other problems to overcome now. Ticketing itself is a nightmare.

Then we have a visa issue as we don’t have a Kazakhstan Embassy here, which we are on the way of sorting out. Hopefully, everything will come together in the end. We are doing our best to make this work, and meanwhile, praying for this to be successful,” said President of SLA, Palitha Fernando. Meanwhile, Fernando also stated Sri Lanka has the option of another World Athletics bronze medal event in Patiala, India, but sending a team there is itself risky with the present situation as there’s no direct flights to Patiala.

Also, as per Sri Lanka rules, the team will have to quarantine 14 days upon arrival, which will be another problem for these athletes, as regaining fitness after two weeks quarantine takes months. SLA has selected Dilshi Kumarasinghe (subject to fitness), who is 69th in the Road to Olympics list, where the top 48 athletes are selected for the Olympics.

Dilshi is 33 points behind to make the cut at the moment, though these points can change drastically with several competitions lined up over the next four weeks. Nimali Liyanarachchi is 53rd in the same list, where she is 10 points and 5 places behind to make the cut. Nadeesha Ramanayaka, the 400m runner, clocked 53.32 seconds during the National Championship and is now in 54th place, down from 58. She is now 6 places and 18 points behind to make the cut. Sumedha Ranasinghe the Javelin Thrower is 41st in the ranking.

He is 9 places behind to make it to the top 32 for the Olympics, and needs another 26 points to catch up. US based Ushan Thiwanka is 48th in the world ranking quota, 16 places behind to make the cut. 400m runner Kalinga Kumarage is the other athlete whom SLA has selected. He is not in the ranking and will have to run the direct qualification time of 44.90 seconds to make the cut.

His personal best lies at 45.99 seconds. Out of other athletes, Italy based 100m sprinter Yupun Abeykoon is 58th in the Road to Olympics list, and is two places and one point behind the Olympic quota of 56 athletes. 3000m steeplechase runner Nilani Rathnayaka is already within qualification in 34th place out of 48 athletes who will make the cut for Tokyo. Deadline for qualification is 29 June.