Sri Lanka win 5 Gold medals with 4 records on opening day

The opening day of the South Asian Junior Athletic Championship (SAJC), Colombo 2018 which concluded today(5th) at the Sugathadasa Stadium where 16 finals were worked out.

Photos: South Asian Junior Athletic Championship 2018 | Day 1

ThePapare.com | 05/05/2018 Editing and re-using images without permission of ThePapare.com will be considered an intended copyright infringement

A total of 10 meet records were established on the first day of the two-day championship with Sri Lanka managing to claim 4 new records. Sri Lanka collected a medal bag of 21 medals which included 5 Gold , 6 Silver and 10 Bronze medals with India collecting a medal tally of 24 which consisted of 11 Gold, 10 Silver and 3 Bronze medals. Pakistan Bangladesh and Maldives all collected a medal each.

The first Gold medal for the hosts came through High Jumper Tharindu Dasun who won Gold in the Men’s High Jump clearing a height of 2.04m. Silver medal was shared amongst Gurjeet Singh of India and Seniru Amarasinghe of Sri Lanka with both clearing 2.00m.

Amasha De Silva, who has become the leading junior sprinter, won a Gold medal for Sri Lanka where she also managed to claim the meet record of the event clocking a time of 11.92secs. Amasha bettered the previous record of 12.15secs which was held by Indian Jessey Arulappan since 2013. Chaitrail Gurjar of India won the Silver medal while the young sprinter Shelinda Jansen secured the Bronze medal for Sri Lanka with a time of 12.28sces.

Impressive Dilishi Kumarasinghe who collected two meet records at the concluded Junior National Championship continued her brilliant form as she managed to win Gold in the Women’s 400m final convincingly with a new meet record clocking 54.47secs outrunning the previous meet record of 56.32 by Gujjala Harathi of India. Indians Subha Venkatesan and Rachna Gujar also managed to better the previous record.

Sri Lanka’s best return of the day came in the Men’s 400m where Sri Lankan athletes managed to clean sweep the podium securing all three medals. Skipper of the Sri Lankan contingent Aruna Darshana had a brilliant run clocking 46.55secs and bettered the previous record of 48.24secs by Sandeep Lathwal. Sri Lankans Pasindu Kodikara and Pabasara Niku who earned the Silver and Bronze medals respectively also managed to better the previous record clocking 46.99 and 47.43secs respectively.

In the Women’s 4X100m final, team Sri Lanka dazzled the crowds as they managed to win the country’s 5th gold medal with a new meet record. Sri Lankan quartet comprised of Shelinda Jansen, Shermila Jan, Shafia Yamic and Amasha De Silva. Shelinda got on to a great and Shermila managed to keep abreast despite the competition by the Indian athlete, although the baton change between Shermila and Shafia was not great but Shafia managed to keep up with the Indian competition and get the baton across to Amasha who sped through to the finish line in record time clocking 46.23secs. Sri Lankan quartet bettered the previous record of 47.14 by a Sri Lankan team in 2007. India who came in second place also managed to better the previous record while Bangladesh won the Bronze medal.

Sri Lankans, however, were left disappointed in the Long Jump as Ridma Nishadi, the Island’s leading long jumper who constantly crosses the 6m mark only manage to a best of 5.91m. The Gold medal went for 5.95m which is normally a distance cleared by Ridma with ease. In the final event of the day, Men’s 4X100m team was disqualified as they dropped their baton in the penultimate exchange. Sri Lankan youngsters had earlier taken a good start and were leading the race before the mishap ruled them out of the competition.

Sri Lanka’s Silver medals came through Prassana Ranawak (Javelin), Ridma Nishadi (Long Jump), Lahiru Keshan (Discus), Chanuka Sandeepa (100m), Pasindu Kodikara (400m) and Seniru Amarasinghe (High Jump).

10 Bronze medals were won by the Sri Lankan athletes – Anjana Fonseka (Javelin), Nethmi Megawarna (Long jump), Sarisha Gunasekara (Shot Put), Pabasara Niku (400m), KMJ Kanagarathne(1500m), Kanishka Madushanka (1500m), Pramod Madubasha (Long Jump), Rangika Gunathilaka (100m H), Sheshan Kariyawasam (110m H), Shelinda Jansen (100m).

The second and the final day of the South Asian Junior Athletic Championship will be worked off tomorrow at the Sugathadasa Stadium from 1400hrs (+5.30 GMT) where the athletes will compete in 16 finals. Click this https://goo.gl/nQk9TB to watch the live and exclusive action brought to you on Sri Lanka’s #1 sports hub www.ThePapare.com

Full Results of Day 01