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by Chris Dhambarage reporting from Matara R. A. D. P. S. Amarasekera of Uva Province and H. M. J. C. Chandra Silva of North Western Province clinched the men's and women's 200 metres title respectively on the second day of track and field events at the 28th National Sports Festival continued at the Uyanwatte Stadium in Matara yesterday.

In the men's final Amarasekera clocked 21.89 seconds followed by S. P. M. Hemantha of North Western Province and N. S. B. Aludeniya of Central Province. In the women's final Chandra Silva recorded a timing of 25.31 seconds and finished ahead of Premila Priyadarshani of Western Province and Sujani Buddhika of Southern Province. Meanwhile two athletes from the Southern Province Chandrika Priyadarshani of and Sunimal Manamperi made a clean sweep in the 400 metres hurdles.

Priyadarshani won the gold medal with a timing of 1.03.57 with A. Kusumawathie of Central Province taking the silver and Viyanka Welpahala of Western Province taking the bronze medal. Manamperi returned a timing of 53.62 seconds to win the gold medal followed by Buddhika Gayan of Western Province and Nalin Buddhika of North Western Province. Rohan Pradeep Perera of Western Province put up a fine performance to win the gold medal in the men's pole vault with an effort of 4.30 metres.

He was closely followed by C. P. Laksiri of the Sabaragamuwa Province with a performance of 4.20 metres. Rohitha Fernando and A. P. Somaratne both from the Western Province were jointly placed third with an effort of 4.00 metres. In the 20 kilo metres men's walking race B. N. M. Nayananda of Western Province took the gold medal clocking one hour 32.45 seconds while O. G. Somasooriya of Central Province came second followed by A. J. Weerasuriya of the Central Province.

In the women's 10 kilo metres walking race Rukma Lakpriyadarshani of Southern Province took the honours clocking 54.34 seconds. M. K. Mapa of Central Province won the silver and Pramitha Wanigabadu of Southern Province took the bronze medal. Meanwhile Nilmini Jayasena of Sabaragamuwa Province set up a new meet record clocking 17 minutes 06.64 seconds in the women's 5000 metres final.

She bettered the previous record of 17 minutes 18.11 seconds held by K. S. Samarakoon of Southern Province in 1999. D. A. Inoka of Central Province came second with a timing of 17.15.15 and Mallika Chandrakanthi of North Central Province won the bronze with a timing of 17.41.21. Anuradha Indrajith Cooray of Western Province proved that he is one of the best long distance runners in the country by winning the men's 10,000 metres gold with a performance of 30 minutes 13.68 seconds. He was followed by G. N. Bandara and Sujeeva Chandrapala both from Central Province. Padma Wijesundera of Sabaragamuwa Province won the gold in the women's discuss throw clearing 40.94 metres. Bashini Perera of Western Province and Mahesh Edirisinghe of North Western Province took the silver and bronze medal respectively. Mangala Priyadarshani of Southern Province running in front of her home crowd put up a pleasing performance to win the women's 800 metres with a timing of 2.11.07 seconds. K. L. Gunawardena of Central Province took the silver and Anusha Atapattu also from Southern Province won the bronze medal. S. R. Bandara of Central Province won the men's 800 metres in a thriller clocking 1.53.20 ahead of S. P. Kumara of Western Province who returned a timing of 1.53.72. Southern Province clinched the women's 4 X 100 metres relay gold medal with a timing of 48.62 seconds followed by North Western Province and Western Province. In weightlifting C. J. Vidanage of North Western Province established three new records in the 62 kg category, snatch event and in the clean and jurk event respectively.

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