Second Athletic Trials move to Diyagama on 10 and 11; focus on Asian Games
The 2nd Selection Trials for the Asian Games has been moved from its original venue, the Sugathadasa Stadium to the newly renovated Mahinda Rajapaksa Stadium in Diyagama which is scheduled to be held on March 10 and 11.
The 1st Selection Trials took place last February at the Sugathadasa Stadium and two more to follow before the final National Team selections of Sri Lanka for the upcoming Asian Games in Hangzhou. The Mahinda Rajapaksa Stadium sees its first event after a few years of renovation of its pavilion and synthetic track and athletes are expected to perform on this track at the second selection trail during two days.
The 1st trial saw Pole Vault champion Sachini Perera and long jump champion Sarangi Silva both creating new National Records in their respective events (both renew their records in Women’s Pole Vault and Long Jump events) while promising athlete Hirusha Hashen was highlighted at the first trial, with a new Junior National Record in the Men’s Long Jump, leaping 7.67m. His performance also allowed him to meet the qualification standard for the 2022 Cali World Athletics U 20 Championships, which stands at 7.55m. Meanwhile, Triple jumper Pasindu Malshan, hurdler Dhanuka Dharshana, and hurdler Kaveesha Bandara were the junior athletes who managed to reach the qualifying standard for the World Junior Athletic Championship during the first trial and this is a very good sign for the future said Sri Lanka Athletic President Major General Palitha Fernando.
The seniors too came out with good performances during the first trial and Sarangi and Sachini set up two National records which give us hope of gold medals at the forthcoming major games, added SLA chief.
Meanwhile, Sri Lanka Athletics (SLA) is expected to conduct the 100th National Athletics Championship which will be held in April will also serve as the third and final trial before selecting the Sri Lanka team for the 19th Asian Games, taking place September 10 to 25 in China. Sri Lankan athletes are more concerned about this key event. Especially long jumper Sarangi Silva and 1500m women’s athlete Gayanthika Abeyratne and 3000m steeplechase women’s champion Nilani Ratnayake already had a good performance which is medal-winning standard at the Asian Games while three Sri Lankans, Yupun Abeykoon (100m)based in Italy Hiruni Wijayaratne (Marathon) and Ushan Thiwanka (high jumper) both are based in USA also having training to focussing on major games.
In addition, Sri Lanka will also host the South Asian Junior Championship in May, after their first stint in 2018. This is going to be the third time Sri Lanka will be hosting this junior South Asian event which is good exposure for local juniors before the Asian and World Championships.