Nesarasa Dhaksitha of Jaffna University set up new Pole Vault National record
Sri Lanka 400 metres champion athlete Aruna Darshana, and promising 800 metres athlete from Walala Central Tharushi Karunaratne claimed major honours and were picked as best male and female athlete at the 102 nd National Athletic championship concluded at Diyagama Mahinda Rajapaksa Stadium On Thursday.
Aruna Dharshana clocked an impressive 45.51 seconds to secure victory in the 400m event and his outstanding performance earned him the Vyravanathan Memorial Challenge Cup, awarded for the overall best performance in the championship.In addition Aruna received the Wilton Bartleet Challenge Trophy for the best male performance and the Horlicks Challenge Trophy for the best sprinter of the championships .
Meanwhile Tharushi Karunarathne, with her outstanding 800m performance of 2:04.22 seconds, claimed the Colombo Canteen Committee Challenge Cup, awarded for the best female athlete. In fact due to bad weather Tharushi couldn’t give of her best but she obtained more points to get close to Olympic qualification
Tharushi’ s elder brother, Harsha Karunarathne, clocked an impressive 1:52.23 seconds to win the men’s 800m, earning him the Governor Generals Cup for the best male middle-distance performance of the meet. In addition Dilhani Lekamge the javelin thrower won best women’s thrower award and best mens thrower award won by Sumedha Ranasinghe . Madushani
Herath the triple jumper with 13.13 metres won the best women’s jumps athlete award .Lakshika Sugandi who won the 100m hurdle with her best performance with 13.79 seconds won the best women’s hurdler award while Ayomal Akalanka was the men’s best hurdler.Nadeesa Ramanayake won the womens best sprinter award
Meanwhile Jaffna University athlete Nesarasa Dhaksitha set up a new National record in women’s Pole Vault event with a leap of 3.72m . In addition Junior National record was set up by Indusara Vidushan in 200m in 21.14 seconds and he also qualified for the world junior championship.
Ayomal Alankara achieved a personal best of 51.42 seconds to win men’ s 400m hurdles final .Ayomal already reached the qualification standard of world junior championship (53.20sec) Jathya Kirula ( Mahinda,Galle ) 400m with 47.31 sec) ,Madushani Herath ( Nannapurawa MV ) triple jump with 12.9 m and Lesandu Arthavidu ( D.S Senanayake, Colombo) high jump with 12.13m reached the world junior qualifying standard based on their performance at this meet .Madushani also won the women’s long jump event .
Dhammika Ratnaweera
