Vidanage the only record breaker

Jani makes a good comeback:

Chris Dhambarage

Sprinter Jani Chaturangani de Silva's fine comeback into competitive sports was overshadowed by a record breaking performance from Chinthana Vidanage on the second day of the 33rd National Sports Festival continued at the Sugathadasa Stadium in Colombo yesterday.

Vidanage who won a gold medal at the recent Commonwealth Games in Melbourne established three new records in the weight lifting championships while representing the Central Province and worked off at the Kelaniya University Gymnasium.

He set up two new games records while competing in the under 69 kgs weight class and altogether he lifted a total of 280 kilograms which was another games record.

Earlier Jani Chaturangani de Silva competing for the first time following last years controversial drug scandal and representing North Western Province clocked 24.56 seconds to take the gold medal in the women's 200 metres quiet convincingly.

She was of course virtually guaranteed of the gold medal with the absence of star athlete Susanthika Jayasinghe who in fact is the holder of the Sri Lanka record (22.28 seconds) and also the National Sports Festival record (22.95 seconds).

Jani Chaturangani who won a gold medal in the women's 4X100 metres relay event and a silver medal in the women's 100 metres dash at last years South Asian Games in Colombo said that she would have returned a better timing if not for the bad weather but was determined to put up an improved performance in today's women's 100 metres event.

Meanwhile the men's 200 metres final was dominated by the Western Province athletes with Sujith Wickremanayake and Gayan Silva winning the gold medal and the silver medal respectively.

Nalin Priyantha Ratnasiri from Western Province came closer to erasing his own record while winning the gold medal in the men's high jump event. He cleared a good 2.12 metres as he agonizingly fell short of his previous record of 2.13 metres which he set up at last years sports festival.

N. C. D. Priyadarshani of Western Province put up a pleasing performance to win the gold medal in the women's long jump event with an effort of 5.97 metres. She of course managed to clear only 5.56 metres in the preliminary round events but rose to the occasion with an improved performance.

However veteran Padma Nandani Wijesundera of Sabaragamuwa Province brought an end to Western Province's dominance by winning the gold medal in the women's discuss throw event.

Wijesundera who holds the Sri Lanka record (47.50 metres) and the National Sports Festival record (43.34 metres) retained the title for yet another year with an effort of 42.25 metres.

Another veteran athlete T. F. Alaileema from the Western Province won the gold medal in the men's discus throw event while clearing a good distance of 49.07 metres. This was a tremendous improvement considering the fact that he had cleared only 48.34 metres during the qualifying rounds.

In the men's shot putt event final O. R. Perera of North Western Province cleared a distance of 14.40 metres to win the gold medal.

Outstation athletes dominated the long distance events with Saman Kumara from Uva Province taking the men's 10,000 metres gold and J. H. Jayasekera from Southern Province winning the women's 5000 metres gold medal.

The Western Province team bagged the gold medal in the men's 4X100 metres relay event but North Western Province accounted for the gold medal in the women's 4X100 metres relay event.

Meanwhile Western Province increased their lead to 30 gold medals, 35 silver medals and 29 bronze medals in the overall standings while Central Province had 21 gold medals, 12 silver medals and 13 bronze medals to their credit. North Western Province were placed third with 11 gold medals, six silver medals and six bronze medals.