Amara Indumathi won two gold medals in the 200m and 400m while Prasanna Jayalath won in 100m and 200m events as Sri Lanka bagged six gold medals at the IPC Athletics Asia-Oceania Championships in Dubai, UAE.
Sri Lanka’s Anil Prasanna Jayalath blasted out of the blocks in the men’s 200m T42 and held on strongly to take the win in 25.11secs, lowering his own previous Asian record mark by an impressive 0.76 seconds.
Photo Album – IPC Athletics Asia-Oceania Championship Medal Winners
The 30-year-old, who won 200m T42 gold at the 2014 Asian Para Games in Incheon, South Korea, was suitably delighted with his performance.
“I had a lot of hopes and expectations coming to this event to get a good time and qualify for the Rio Paralympics. I want to medal there so this is a great start,” he said.
“I want to improve my time to 24.5 too, and I am confident that I can keep improving on my times and get to Brazil,” he added.
Prasanna also won the 100m in the T42 category in 12.62 secs, while winning a Silver medal in the Long Jump T42/44 with a jump of 5.37m.
Amara Indumathi secured 200m gold in the T44/47 category with timing of 27.89secs while her 400m gold came in 1:03.07mins in the T20/43-47 category.
Indumathi won a Silver medal in the Long Jump T20/47 with a jump of 4.70m.
Ajith Hettiarachchi too sealed Gold in the 100m T44 category finishing in 12.30secs. Hettiarachchi added a Silver and a Bronze to his medal tally in the 400m T44 (56.46secs) and 200m T44 (25.06secs) respectively.
The men’s 4x100m T42-47 Gold was also won by Sri Lanka in 45.42secs.
Paralympic Bronze medalist, Pradeep Sanjaya had to be satisfied with Silver in the 400m T47 with a time of 51.12 secs, while he missed out on another medal, finishing 4th in the 200m T47 in 23.38secs.
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Buddhika Indrapala bagged Bronze in the 100m T42 event with a time of 13.41 seconds and another Bronze in the Long Jump T42/44 with a jump of 5.08m
Sri Lanka finished the championship in 6th position with six Golds, four Silvers and five Bronze medals in the Championship, where the 7 male participants won 4 Gold, 3 Silver, 5 Bronze while the only female participant (Amara Indumathi) bagged 2 Golds and 1 Silver medal.
Results:
Gold Medals
Prasanna Jayalath – 12.62secs (Men’s 100m T42)
Prasanna Jayalath – 25.11secs (Men’s 200m T42)
Amara Indumathi – 1:03.07mins (Women 400m T20/43-47)
Amara Indumathi – 27.89secs (Women 200 T44/47)
Ajith Hettiarachchi – 12.30secs (Men’s 100m T44)
Sri Lanka – 45.52secs (Men 4X100m T42-47)
Silver Medals
Gamini Ketawala – 44.71m (Men’s Javelin Throw F46)
Amara Indumathi – 4.70m (Women’s Long Jump T20/47)
Ajith Hettiarachchi – 56.46secs (Men’s 400m T44)
Prasanna Jayalath – 5.37m (Men’s Long Jump T42/44)
Bronze Medals
Ajith Hettiarachchi – 25.06secs (Men’s 200m T44)
Buddhika Indrapala – 13.41secs (Men’s 100m T42)
Buddhika Indrapala – 27.51secs (Men’s 200m T42)
Pradeep Sanjaya – 51.12secs (Men’s 400m T47)
Buddhika Indrapala – 5.08m (Men’s Long Jump T42/44)
