Safiya Yamik the athletic star from Kandy

On Jul 22, 2021

Twenty two year old Safiya Yamik an old girl of Vihara Maha Devi Balika, Kandy who was in School from Grade One onwards is an outstanding Athlete. She started her athletic career when she was 13 years old winning 100 and 200 metre races at the School Annual Sports Meet in the Under 14 category.

At the Zonal meet too she came first in 100 and 200 metre races and at the same year she came second in both 100 & 200 metre races at the Provincial Meet. In the year 2015 she became the ‘Best Athlete’ and she won the 100, 200 and 400 metre races to achieve this feat. She participated at the All Island Meet held in Kandy in 2015 and won the 100 metre and came second in 200 metre and third in 400 metre races.

In the following year in 2017 she came second to Amasha de Silva in the Provincial Meet and secured the third place at the All Island meet in 100 metre race. She won the 4×100 Relay at the National Meet in 2017 with her team members who were Amasha de Silva.Yamani

Dulanjala and Damasha Hettiarachchi. In 2018 she got the second place in 100 and second in 200 meter races and in the same year she was selected to the Sri Lanka team for the Relay event which was held in Patilla,India and their team secured the first place at the SAF Meet in the same year and her team mates were Shelinda Jansen,Amasha de Silva and Churchila Jansz. In 2019 she participated at the Selection Meet held at the Sugathadasa Stadium and secured the second place in 100 and Third place in 200 metre race and at the National Games she secured the Sixth place in the 100 and third place at the 200 metreraces.

In 2019 Safiya received the ‘Best Athlete’ award by winning the 100, 200 and 400 metre races and established a meet record clocking 12 seconds in the 100 metre race. In 2020 she secured the third place at the National Sports Festival and In 2021 she secured the fourth place in the 100 meter race at the same meet.

In the same year she was selected to the Sri Lanka Relay team after her performances in the Athletic Meet held in India.

This year she improved her Athletic ability when she joined the Sri Lanka Army and her intention is to continue Athletics to come-up to the Olympic Level. She is thankful to her first Athletic Coach, S.P.Vithana and the present coach Dilan Suraj Mendis and her father J.M.Yamik for the encouragement given to her to improve athletics.