Sri Lanka finishes with solitary medal

Sri Lanka finished their campaign with just a solitary medal in the 23rd Asian Athletics Championships which concluded at the Khalifa International Stadium in Doha, Qatar today (24).

Sri Lanka’s only medal at this meet came from the promising athlete Vidusha Lakshani who bagged the Bronze while competing in the Women’s triple jump event with a pleasing performance of 13.53 metres on the third day of the meet.

Even then, her effort was below par considering the fact that the former Asian Junior Bronze Medallist had achieved a personal best of 13.64m in 2017 in Colombo.

Nevertheless, she was able to provide Sri Lanka’s only medal at the meet while finishing behind the winner Thailand's Parinya Chuaimaroeng (13.72m) and China's Rui Zeng (13.65m) who collected the Silver Medal.

Sri Lanka continued their disappointing performances on the final day of the meet as well with Damith Hemantha finishing 11th in the Men’s 1,500m final with a time of three minutes, 49.28 seconds.

Gayanthika Abeyratne was also placed 11th in the Women’s 1,500m final with a time of four minutes, 24.42s.

In the Men’s long jump, Prasad Wimalasiri was placed eighth with a performance of 7.49m while Danushka Sandaruwan finished seventh in the same event with an effort of 7.65m.

Meanwhile, the Women’s 4X400m Relay Team set up a new Sri Lanka record by finishing fourth with a time of three minutes 35.06s.

They bettered the previous record of three minutes, 35.42s which was established way back in 1999.

Overall, this was one of the worse performances from the 15-member strong (eight men and seven women) Sri Lankan contingent which was spearheaded by former Asian Championship 800m Gold Medallist Nimali Liyanarachchi.

However, this time Liyanarachchi was pushed to the seventh place while her teammate Gayanthika Abeyratne had to settle with the fourth-place in the Women’s 800m event.

Meanwhile, sprinter Himasha Eshan also put up a disappointing performance as he was knocked-out from the semi-finals of the Men’s 100m and did not compete in the Men’s 200m.

In addition, Rusiru Chathuranga reached the semi-finals of the Men’s 800m, Shreshan Dananjaya was placed sixth in the Men’s triple jump and Sumedha Ranasinghe was placed eighth in the Men’s javelin throw event.

At the previous Asian Athletics Championships held in Bhubaneswar, India Sri Lanka had the satisfaction of winning one Gold Medal and four Silver Medals. (SP)