Sri Lanka’s prime hope to win the country’s first Youth Olympic medal and the first Global medal since 2007, ParamI Wasanthi Maristella, finished the Women’s 2000m steeple chase placed third in Buenos Aires.
Royalist Seniru placed 4th while Dilan runs PB at YOG 2018
First Sri Lankan athlete to compete at the Youth Olympic Games…
17-year-old steeple chaser, Parami from Kuliyapitiya Central College clocked 6:33.06mins, a new personal best time for the youngster, to secure the third place in the first stage of the competition. Kenyan long distancer Fancy Cherono secured the top spot of stage 01 of the Women’s 2000m steeple chase with a time of 6:26.08. Mekides Abebe of Ethiopia finished second clocking a time of 6:27.93mins.
This year the events at the Youth Olympic Games are held in two stages where the performance of the athletes across both stages will be taken into consideration to determine the eventual winners. The second stage of the Women’s 2000m steeple chase will consist of the 4Km cross country run which is scheduled to be held on the 15th of October at 1900hrs.
Parami’s previous personal best time of 6:35.20 clocked at the Asian qualification round in Thailand was ranked third in the World junior rankings behind Cherono of Kenya and Abebe of Ethiopia. The youngster once again showcased why she is an athlete that needs to be invested in as she showcased great composure and determination during her run at the Youth Olympic Games and she managed to better her personal best by over 2 seconds.
Having sprung to the spotlight after her 3000m Steeple chase Golden run at the Asian Junior Championship, Parami steadily improved throughout all competitions she took part in as she won the All Island School Games 15km road race convincingly and collected two meet records in the Sri John Tarbet (Senior) Athletic Championship managing to clock 6:37.90 in the Under 18 2000m steeple chase, She went onto show case incredible pace in the Under 18 3000m as she managed to clock Sri Lanka’s 5th best time in the event with a superb run of 9:58.3mins.
Visit www.ThePapare.com/Athletics as we will be following Parami’s journey in a bid to usher Sri Lanka’s first Youth Olympic medal at the Youth Olympic Games 2018.
