Sri Lanka elite athletes flop at Asian Meet

By Susil Premalal

The Sri Lanka athletic contingent arrived from South Korea last night after a dismal performance at the 26th Asian Senior Athletic Championship 2025.
The Asian Athletic and the Athletic Association of South Korea organised this tournament in Gumi, South Korea, from May 27-31.
This time, only 19 countries won medals out of the 39 participating nations, and Sri Lanka, which won only three bronze medals, finished in 18th place, which clearly shows a decline of the Sri Lankan team.
Sri Lanka won bronze in the Men’s 400m, 4x400m mixed relay and 4x400m Women’s relay events.
Sri Lanka won eight medals (three gold, two silver and three bronze) at the 2023 Bangkok Asian Championships and finished fourth in the overall medals table.
Among the South Asian countries that participated in the tournament, India, the strongest, won 24 medals (eight gold, 10 silver and six bronze) and finished second in the overall medals table.
China won 32 medals (19 gold, nine silver and four bronze) and won the overall championship.
Apart from India, Pakistan also won a gold medal which was in the Men’s javelin throw event.
Meanwhile, Rumesh Tharanga (83.27m) qualified for the Men’s javelin throw final and came fourth, while Olympian Sumedha Ranasinghe (79.81m) came seventh.
Apart from that, Rasara Wijesuriya, who participated in the Women’s 5,000m final, finished her event in 16:29.15s and came in 11th place.
Meanwhile, Birmingham Commonwealth Games bronze medallist Yupun Abekoon, who was set to participate in three events, had arrived in South Korea from Italy at the expense of the Ministry of Sports (at a cost of more than LKR 400,000) and returned as an unsuccessful athlete without participating in the Men’s 100m and 200m events and stopping halfway in the Men’s 4x100m event.