Sri Lanka won five medals at Asian Junior Athletics Championships
2024.04.29
With two silver and three bronze medals at the Asian Junior Athletics Championship in Dubai, Sri Lanka’s four relay teams all finished on the podium, and in an impressive feat, every individual placed in the top eight.
Ananda College Colombo sprinter Merone Wijesinghe won silver in the men’s 4×100-meter relay after setting a new national junior record twice in the tournament. It was a fantastic sprint effort.
The group, which also included sprinter Indusara Vidushan from Ananda, athlete Kaushal Thamel from St. Sebastian’s College in Kandana, and sprinter Induwara Weeraratne from Leeds International in Matara, became the first Sri Lankan junior foursome to break 40 seconds in the 4×100-meter relay. On Saturday, they came in second with a time of 39.81 seconds. During the competition, they set a new national junior record for the second time. They broke the record set by Arosha Kariyawasam, Suranjaya de Silva, D.K.M.N. Sachinthana, and Himasha Eshan, who set a time of 40.37 seconds at the 2014 Asian Junior Championships in Taipei, on Friday during the heats.
For the regional competition, Sri Lanka Athletics sent a 17-person squad that included four relay teams.
In the women’s 4×400-meter relay, Nuhansa Kodituwakku (Matara Central), Jithma Wijethunga (Lyceum International, Wattala), Maheema Pavindi (Maliyadeva Girls School, Kurunegala), and Charuni Pramudika (Holy Cross, Gampaha) tied for third place with a time of 3:46.20 seconds.
Men’s 4×400-meter relay winners were Jathya Kirulu (Mahinda College, Galle), Hasindu Nethsara (Lumbini College), Shashintha Silva (St. Sebastian’s College, Kandana), and Avishka Rajapaksha (Maliyadewa College, Kurunegala), who finished in 3:09.48 seconds.
The 4×400-meter mixed relay team took up the bronze earlier in the competition.
Madushani Herath of Nannapurawa MV Bibila won the silver medal in the triple jump, clearing 13.01 meters, which was the lone individual victory for Sri Lanka.
Meanwhile, 15-year-old Chen Yujie of China won gold in 11.32, breaking Damayanthi Dharsha’s record by 0.10 in the 100 meters Asian Junior Championship, which had held unchallenged for thirty years.
@charith
