Long Jumper Prasad Wimalasiri and quarter-miler Kalinga Kumarage bowed out of the finals after been placed 7th & 8th respectively in the evening session of the Athletics competition held today (26th).
Photos: Athletics | Asian Games 2018 (Day 8)
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Prasad Wimalasiri came out roaring with an opening jump of 7.85m which placed him third at the end of the first round behind the Chinese duo Jianng Wang (8.24m) & Yaoguang Zhang (8.15m) who went on to win the Gold and Silver. Prasad’s second and third jumps were measured at 7.75 & 7.51, while Indian Jumper Sreeshanker had a jump of 7.95m. Prasad could not convert his final two jumps legitimately. The Indonesian Sapawaturrahaman clinched the Bronze medal with the backing of the home crowd in his final jump which was measured at 8.09m.
It’s unfortunate that Prasad could not find the rhythm needed after a decent start in the 1st round. The Long Jumper leapt to his personal best of 8.14 at the recently concluded nationals which also included a jump of 8.10m. If Prasad replicated his PB, he could have ended up with an Asian Games Bronze medal.
Meanwhile Kalinga Kumarage started off his Asian Games campaign on a positive note running his Personal Best (PB) in the first round of the Men’s 400 clocking 45.99secs. From the semifinal Kalinga went on to qualify for the finals as one of the fastest two losers clocking 46.21sec and was drawn in to the difficult 1st lane in today’s final. Kumarage however got off to a decent start, but could not convert the start into a dominant position thereafter placing him in 7th position approaching the final 200m. He was beaten to the line by Bahraini Abbas in the home straight with Kumarage not looking comfortable in the final few meters finishing with a timing of 46.49. The Gold medal was won by Abdalelah Hassan of Qatar who ran sub 45secs in a dominant performance.
The focus will now entirely shift to the Men’s 4X400m relay for Kalinga Kumarage. He is tipped to run the final lap with Aruna Darshana running the opening lap. Ajith Premakumara will run the second while Pasindu Kodikara will be running the third lap.
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