Yamani Dulanjalee, Roshan Ranathunga and Srimali Divisekara won silver medals in women’s 400m hurdles, men’s high jump and weightlifting respectively at the Commonwealth Youth Games in Samoa.
Srimali Divisekara won her silver medal in the 48kg category, lifting a total weight of 125kgs. She was just 1kg behind the gold medal winner Catrin Jones from Wales. Jones lifted 54kgs in snatch and 72kgs in the clean and jerk while Srimali also lifted 54kgs in snatch and 71kgs in clean and jerk. Hailee Jarrett from Australia won bronze with a total weight of 123kgs.
Srimali switched from Habarana Isuru Paasala when her coach Nadeeka Bandara moved from the said school to Nalanda Maha Vidyalaya, Kandy. Her previous best was 120kgs (snatch 52, clean and jerk 68) and this result is a vast improvement.
“Srimali had lifted 120kgs back in April. She did lift 126-127kgs in training but at the event she missed two lifts so wasn’t able to challenge for the gold medal,” Bandara told exclusively with ThePapare.com.
Prashan Ranathunga won the silver medal clearing a height of 2.11m in the men’s High Jump event. Prashan’s personal best in the event was 2.12m. Tejaswin Shankar of India won the gold with a height of 2.14m.
In the women’s 400m hurdles final Yamani Dulanjalee from Ambagamuwa Central in Hatton finished behind Jamaica’s Junelle Bromfield with a timing of 61.70 secs. Bromfield won the gold in 60.78 secs.
“My personal best was 60.9 seconds but I ran this race with an injury so that was why my timing was down,” Dulanjalee told exclusively with ThePapare.com.
ThePapare.com congratulates Dulanjalee, Roshan and Srimali on making the Motherland proud!
