Two National records at the 54 th Army Athletics Championship

Athletic extravaganza of the Sri Lanka Army, Army Athletics Championship which held its 54 th edition this year, concluded today at the Diyagama Mahinda Rajapakse Stadium after three days of fierce interregiment rivalry between the soldiers.

Sri Lanka Electrical and Mechanical Engineers (SLEME) took the overall championship with a total of 302 points while Sri Lanka Artillery Regiment was placed second with a total of 238 points. Gamunu Watchwas in third place and had managed to accumulate a total of 150 points.Weather Gods were not kind to the athletes of Sri Lanka Army as there was constant on and off showers throughout the three days which hampered the chances of optimum performance by the athletes. However, the weather could not hold back the gutsy show the athletes put on for their fellow regiment men & women as 12 new meet records were established during the three days which included 2national records.

Vetern Sanjaya enter the record books  

Sanjaya Jayasinghe of the Artillery regiment who leapt his way to the National Championship at the recently concluded National Sports Festival yet again proved beyond doubt that he is the leading triple jumper in the country. Jayasinghe managed to leap a distance of 16.39m in the Men’s triple jump to enter his name to the national record books and broke the five-year-old record that was held by Dinesh Fernando for a distance of 16.37m. 35year old Jayasinghe has been the stand out athlete in the triple jump event and is known for his strict regime of training and food habits. Speaking to ThePapare.com Jayasinghe profusely thanked his coach Cuban National Luis Miranda for the guidance and also thanked the Artillery regiment for their support towards his athletic endeavors.

Gamunu Watch creates history in 4 X1500m

Gamunu Watch managed to create history as they ran a brilliant time of 15:51.3mins in the Men’s 4X1500m relay to lay claim to a New national record. The team consisted of H.K.P. Kumara, M.S.R. Wijeewickrama, G.I. Dharshana Lanka and G.R. Chathuranga.

Himasha humbled in the 100m

National record holder in Men’s 100m and Sri Lanka’s leading sprinter Himasha Eshan’s horrible season continues as he was humbled by Yupun Abeykoon at the Men’s 100m. Yupun ran a brilliant time of 10.47secs to clinch gold pushing Himasha to the second place. Himasha clocked a time of 10.64secs, highly unsatisfactory time for his standards and managed to deny popular eastern provincial sprinter M. Ashraff who clocked 10.65 of a silver medal.

Iron Women Sugandhi – the fastest at the Army meet

National record holder in the heptathlon Lakshika Sugandi was the fastest female athlete of the meet managing to win the Women’s 100m with a time of 12.14secs. She was also placed third in the 200m dash while she made easy work of the 100m Hurdles event clocking a time of 14.47secs.

Artillery and Light infantry share honors

In the very keenly contested Tug of War competition, which was held alongside the Athletic Championship Artillery Regiment shared honours with Ceylon Light Infantry regiment winning a final each. The two regiments have been consistent finalists in the competitions and Artillery regiment managed to take home 640kg title while Ceylon Light Infantry regiment won the 540Kg category after a thrilling and an exhausting battle which lasted over 10 minutes.

Records at the 54^th Army Athletic Meet