56th Junior Nationals; Shelinda breaks a 32-year old record

The 56th Junior National Championship commenced yesterday (23rd) as the first event on the newly laid synthetic track at the Sugathadasa Stadium. The first day of the meet yielded 7 meet records and a national record with nine meet records tumbling on the second day.

The Junior Nationals will also work as a qualification event for the upcoming junior South Asian Athletic Championship, which will be hosted by Sri Lanka on the 5th & 6th of May.  Hence the Under 20 events will receive a lot of attention throughout the competition.

The finals of the 200m sprint was conducted today, with four new meet records in the event across the age groups.

In the Girl’s Under 18 200m event Shelinda Jansen of Gateway College, broke a 32-year-old meet record in the event clocking 24.98sec. The previous record was held by Taniya Van Heer, who went on to represent Australia and win two gold medals and a bronze at the 1998 Commonwealth Games for Australia. Jansen looked to be in terrific form as she went ahead of MP Weerasooriya and Sadeepa Henderson comfortably.

In the Boy’s Under 20 event, Aruna Darshana of Weera Keppetipola, Akuramboda blitzed through the sprint as he managed to better his own record of 21.64sec at the heats with a terrific run of 21.38sec. Aruna who is a leading junior athlete in the country, is a huge prospect for the future and has showcased the ability to become a real contender.  Aruna’s performance is a great heads up for the upcoming Junior International competitions.

In the Boy’s Under 23 200m event, Nilaksha Perera and MSM Safan crossed the finish line at the same time clocking a time of 21.50sec to create a new meet record, bettering the previous record of 21.60sec ironically jointly held by S L Wickramasinghe and S S Perera.  

Kavindi Edirisinghe of Janadipathi Balika Vidyalaya, Nawala bettered her own record she established yesterday in the heats running a time of 25.80secs in the final of the Girl’s Under 16 200m sprint. Kavindi laid claim to the meet record previously held by Sadeepa Henderson clocking 25.86secs in the heats.

The Northern dominance in the Pole vault continued to the Boy’s U20 event as A Puvitharan of J/Chavakachcheri Hindu College laid claim to a new meet record clearing 4.70m. He bettered the previous record of Napthali Joyson from Arunodaya College, Jaffna who established the record in last year’s competition with an effort of 4.61m. S Kabilasan from Mahajana College Jaffna was placed second while R Jathushan of Arunodaya College Jaffna was placed third to complete an all Jaffna podium in the event.

P.I.N Pallegama of Ibbangamuwa Central College leapt to a new meet record in the Girl’s Under 16 event clearing a height of 1.71m. She managed to better the previous meet record by Ishani Edirisinghe of Dambulla National School by a centimeter to lay claim to the meet record in the event. Marsha Fernando of Convent of Our Lady of Victories, Moratuwa and Minoli Fernando of Mary Immaculate Convent Ja Ela both cleared a height of 1.53 with Marsha being awarded the second place as Minoli managing to clear the height in lesser attempts.

In the Under 16 Girl’s Discuss throw Heshani Maheshika came out with a head turning throw of 38.29m to create a new meet record. It was a magnificent effort by the young thrower, managing to better a 20-year-old previous meet record of 32.08m of L S Weerasinghe by over 6m. Yelani Pabasara of Gamini MMV, Ingiriya was placed second while Ovini Chandrasekara of Bishop’s College who created a new meet record yesterday in the Shot Put was placed third with a throw of 26.37m.

Long distance events which are traditionally dominated by A Ratnayake College, Walawe – KMJ Kanagaratne did not disappoint as she managed to create a new meet record in the U20 3000m Steeple chase with a time of 10:57.11. The previous record was held by G M K Weerasinghe also from A Ratnayake College with a time of 11:18.30.

>>Full Results<<