Team of 11 for IAAF World Juniors in Finland
Athletics Association (AASL) has finalized a team of 11 athletes and 6 officials for the IAAF World Junior Athletic Championship to be held from 10 to 15 in Finland.
The team includes Asian Junior 400m Gold medallist Aruna Darshana and Gold medal winning in men’s 4x400m relay team.
Women’s team include Gold medallist Parami Wasanthi Marisstella and Bronze medal winning in 4x400m women’s relay team.
Dilshi Kumarasinghe who won medals in both 400m and 800m together with sprinter Amasha de Silva who won two Silvers in 100m and 200m, are included in the 4x400m team.
All four members of the men’s 4x400m relay team qualified for the junior event in their individual event performances, but apart from Aruna, others have been instructed to focus on the 4x400m relay where the SL team has a chance of a podium finish in the event.
In girl’s events, Dilshi Kumarasinghe who qualified for the world event in both the 400m and 800m will opt to run only the 800m due to schedule interference as she has more chances to succeed in the 800m event where she clocked 2 minutes 4.53 seconds which is a better time than the time set by last year’s Silver medallist.
Quarter miler Aruna Darshana will be SL’s prime medal hope at the World Juniors as his Asian Junior Gold medal performance of 45.79 seconds is ranked sixth with the other participants in the world juniors as of yesterday. Since, it was visible that he did not run his best at Asian Juniors, there’s a high chance for him to change SL athletic history as no Sri Lankan has ever won a medal at the World Juniors.
Relay Trials
Trials to finalize the relay laps will be held on 4 July at the Sugathadasa Stadium. It was visible that some of the athletes who performed well at the Junior Nationals could repeat it during the Asian Juniors or South Asian Juniors, hence AASL has decided to call for trials to finalize the relay teams.
Two best 400m runners in Aruna and Pasindu will not participate in the trials leaving Ravishka, Pabasara and Harshan to battle it out for the last two berths in the team. In the girl’s trials, apart from Dilshi all the other four will compete in the trials for three places in the relay team.
Coaches of Aruna Darshana, Pasindu Kodikara, Wasanthi Marisstella and Pabasara Niku are included in the team while Amasha’s coach Sanjeewa Weerakkody too has requested to be allowed to participate from the Sports Minister as he is not part of the official team.
No Masseur
AASL officials also said they were awaiting the approval of Doctor Dammika Senanayake. Notably, the team does not include a Masseur once again. During the Asian Junior in Japan, it was a former athlete who lived in Japan that paid for the Masseur during the championship.
The masseur’s services is vital for SL’s medal chances especially with sprinter Amasha de Silva was visibly in pain from the injury as she finished third in the heat and was able to win a Silver medal in the finals of 200m after getting treated by a Japanese masseur.
Boys:
Aruna Darshana (Weerakeppetipola N.S Akuramboda) 400m, 4x400m, Pasindu Kodikara (Maliyadeva College Kurunegala) 4x400m, Ravishka Indrajith (St. Benedict’s Kotahena) 4x400m, Pabasara Niku (Nalanda College Colombo) 4x400m, Harsha Karunaratne (A. Ratnayaka CC Walala) 4x400m
Girls:
Amasha de Silva (Swarnamali GC Kandy) 100m, 4x400m, Dilshi Kumarasinghe (A. Ratnayaka CC Walala) 800M, 4x400m, Sachini Divyanjali (Lyceum –Wattala) 4x400m, Sandumini Bandara (St. Joseph’s BV Kegalle) 4x400m, Romeshi Attidiya (Lyceum- Nugegoda) 4x400m, Parami Wasanthi Maris Stella (Kuliyapitiya CC) 3000m St. Chase.
Officials:
G.L.S Perera (Manager), Sunethra Karunanayake (Lady Chaperon), Asanka Rajakaruna (Coach), Janitha Jayasinghe (Coach), Daminda Bandara (Coach), S.P de Silva (Coach)
