Sugath Thilakaratne Sri Lanka’s champion 400m runner

Sri Lanka has a reputation of having produced some of the finest 400m runners over the years and out of them Sugath Thillakaratne has a special place for his remarkable achievement at the 1998 Asian Games held in Bangkok, Thailand.

This 25-year-old sprinter, from Norton Bridge, took the Asian Games by storm as he overcame all odds to snatch the gold medal in a spectacular manner ahead of 24 other top athletes from 15 nations in the region. It was on a Monday, December 14, 1998, that Thillakaratne came into the

limelight by returning a splendid time of 44.99s to win the gold medal ahead of the favourites Ibrahim Ismail Muftah of Qatar (45.32s) and Paramjit Singh of India (45.93) who were pushed to second and third place respectively.

Incidentally, Thillakaratne was the dark horse in this event when he started the final because there were few other athletes who had superior timings recorded in their respective heats and in the two semi-finals. Thillakaratne managed to claim heat-1 with a modest time of 46.88s while

Kim Jae-da of South Korea (47.28s) and Khaled Al-Johar of Kuwait (47.88) also qualified by finishing second and third respectively. However, Paramjit Singh of India (46.68s), Kenji Tabata of Japan (46.82s), Ibrahim Ismail Muftah of Qatar (46.65s) and Masayoshi Kan of Japan

(46.67s) all had returned much better timings in their respective heats and were very much the favourites to win the gold medal. But Thillakaratne was able to win a psychological battle by taking the second semi-final with an improved time of 45.88s while pushing Paramjit

Singh (46.37s) and Masayoshi Kan (46.50s) into second and third place respectively.

The first semi-final was won by Ibrahim Ismail Muftah (45.95s) followed by Shon Ju-il of South Korea (46.55s) and Kenji Tabata (46.74s) in second and third place respectively.

Thillakaratne, of course, preserved his best for the last and delivered the final blow in style as he outclassed Ibrahim Ismail Muftah (45.32s) and Paramjit Singh (45.93) by claiming the gold medal with a fantastic time of 44.99s.

Thillakaratne had his early education at Vidulipura MV and showed early promise while competing in the 200m and 400m events at Inter-Schools Athletics Meets while training under the guidance of veteran Coach Anura Bandara. He later joined Ambagamuwa MV, Ginigathhena and made his international debut in style by winning the gold medal with a record time of 46.58s in the 400m event at the 1993 South Asian Federation (SAF) Games held in Dhaka, Bangladesh.

He also helped Sri Lanka to win the gold medal in the 4X400m relay event at the same meet. Thilakaratne once again bettered the 400m SAF Games record with a time of 46.12s in Madras, India in 1995.

He also joined the 4X400m relay team and won the event with a record timing of 3.07.57s. He was once again part of the 4X400m Sri Lankan Relay Team that won the gold medal at the 2004 SAF Games in Islamabad, Pakistan. Thilakaratne went on to reach new heights and shattered W. Wimaladasa’s 400m national record by clocking 45.58s at the 1997 World Athletics Championships in Athens, Greece.

The post Sugath Thilakaratne Sri Lanka’s champion 400m runner appeared first on DailyNews.