On the opening day of the athletic events at the 6th Asian Indoor & Martial Arts Games held in Ashgabat, Turkmenistan, Sri Lankan Athletes Indunil Herath & Gayanthika Abeyrathne cruised through to the next stage topping their heats in the Men’s & Women’s 800m heats respectively.
Competing in the second heat of the Men’s 800m event, Herath set the pace of the race taking a good lead from the start of the race. Khurshidjon Akhmadaliev of Kazakhstan tried challenging Herath but failed with Herath managing to get into remarkable rhythm. At the half way mark completing 400m Herath clocked 55.89 secs and accelerated in the last lap to finish the heat with a time of 1:53.79 secs which is a new national indoor record for Men’s 800m bettering Kumara Amarasekara’s performance of 1:57.11 at the Bill Coby invitational in Reno, USA. Herath also recorded the best time in all four heats of the Men’s 800m and is on the top of the table of the 12 athletes qualified for the semifinals. Indunil will be competing in the Men’s 800m semifinal tomorrow (19th) at 1915hrs local time.
National record holder in the Women’s 800m, Gayanthika Abeyrathne cruised to the final of the Women’s 800m as she managed to win her heat quite comfortably with a time of 2:12.93 secs running in the first heat of the event. Gayanthika who alongside Nimali Liyanarachi has injected new life to the women’s 800m event topped the table of finalists with her time of 2:12.93 going into the final which is scheduled to be held on the 20th September at 1915hrs local time.
With both Gayanthika Abeyrathne and Indunil Herath coming away with the best times in their respective events, the Islands medal hopes have been bolstered by the gutsy performance by the two 800m athletes. Gen. Palitha Fernando President of the Athletic Association of Sri Lanka(AASL) congratulated the athletes on their good run and added that the AASL looks forward to both athletes wining Gold for the country.
Speaking to ThePapare.com the National recorder and the Chairman of selection committee Mr. Saman Kumara added that “ It was a good performance from both of them, our athletes have a small disadvantage since they are not very used to an indoor track. The indoor tracks are 200m and there is a slope that you must account for. It’s the first time for Gayanthika in an indoor track while Indunil has competed in the previous Asian indoor competition. Gayanthika hails from Sooriyawewa and Indunil from Walala where they did most of their training in a 200m track, this would have worked in their advantage and we look forward to a medal from them.
