Five Sri Lankan athletes are currently in with a chance of qualifying for the World Athletics Championships set to be held in Oregon, USA from the 15th – 24th of July.
Entries for the Championship will close on the 26th of June.
No Sri Lankan has achieved the qualification standards yet, but Yupun Abeykoon (Men’s 100m), Nilani Ratnayake (Women’s 3000m Steeplechase) and Sumedha Ranasinghe (Men’s Javelin Throw) are currently within the qualification quota according to World Rankings.
Abeykoon came very close to hitting the qualification standard of 10.05s in the Men’s 100m, when he set a National and South Asian Record last month (28th May) at 10.06s. However, due to his excellent performances during the qualification period so far, he is currently sitting in 35th place on the Road to Oregon quota list for the event. There are 48 total spots up for grabs in the Men’s 100m.
Steeplechaser Ratnayake also sits in 35th place in the quota, despite not having too many competitions during the qualification period. The 31-year-old came heartbreakingly close to qualifying for the Tokyo Olympics last year, but lost out on the last day of qualifications – again, lack of competition was one of the reasons she couldn’t put up enough points to stay within the quota for the event. With just over 3 weeks left for the entries to close, Ratnayake will hope she can close in on that 9:30.00 qualification mark and stay within the top 45 on the quota list. Her season’s best sits at 9:40.24.
With a season’s best of 82.18m, veteran Javelin thrower Sumedha Ranasinghe is also within the qualification quota at the moment, however, will need some good performances in the coming weeks to secure his position as he sits in 29th place, in an event where the entry quota is just 32. The entry standard sits at 85m, beyond Ranasinghe’s career best of 83.04m.
Apart from these three athletes, Ushan Thiwanka (Men’s High Jump) and Dhanushka Sandaruwan (Men’s Long Jump) are the others who are close to getting into the qualification quota list.
Thiwanka sits in 33rd position (32 qualify) and Sandaruwan is in 42nd (32 will qualify) in their respective events.
