[vc_row][vc_column width=”2/3″][vc_column_text]Sprinter Himasha Eashan was in seventh heaven after an astonishing 10.11 seconds and 10.12 seconds (Wind aided) in the 100m heats and semis, but the Triple Jumper Greshan Dhananjaya stole the day’s honours when shattering the Sri Lanka record with a leap of 16.71m at the first National Trials at the Sugathadasa stadium earlier today.
Dhananjaya, former St. Joseph Vaz athlete who excelled in both the Long Jump and Triple Jump with a leap of 16.71m in the finals of the triple, to win and take away the Sri Lanka record of 16.39 metres set up by Sanjaya Jayasinghe in 2017. Jayasinghe who is now 37 finished third in the event.
Dhananjaya, 22 finished fourth in both these events at the 2016 Asian Junior Championship showing much promise for a bright future and finally lived up to expectation. His performance could have sealed a silver medal in the last edition of the Asian Championship where he will now become one of the prime medal hopes for Sri Lanka in the forthcoming Championship to be held in Qatar in April.
Himasha Dazzles
The day started with the amazing performance in sprinting from the defending South Asian Games (SAG) champion, Himasha Eashan who ran 10.11 seconds in the 100M heats receiving a standing ovation from almost everyone who was present in the stadium. But, the wind aid of + 3.1 which is over the legal wind limit of +2.0 for sprinting left Eashan dejected.
Determined Eashan, returned to the semi finals two and half hours later again dazzled in the same style, this time clocking 10.12 seconds but the wind again was +2.6 just 0.6 over the legal limit. Eashan could not shatter his SL and South Asian record of 10.26 seconds set in 2016. A moment later the 200m SAG gold medalist equaled his personal best of 10.27 seconds with a perfect wind of +2.0 which the Athletics Association considered as the ‘Sri Lanka record with a legal wind reading’ because Eashan’s 10.26 did not have a wind reading due to a technical blunder by an Indian official in SAG.
“Happy to clock a better time in almost two years as I could not have a good run since 2016 SAG . My main target will be eyeing for a medal at the Asian Championship and getting selected for the forthcoming World Championship “said Eashan after the race.
The duo will return on Sunday for the 100m finals which will be a cracker to watch.
Anjani keeps her title
Long Jump champion Anjani Pulwansa who did win all the major local championships was up against Sarangi Silva, the former South Asian Junior Gold Medalist who returned to National events after almost two years due to an injury lay off . But, the defending National champion, Anjani managed to keep her title leaping 6.07 m while Sarangi finished a close second with 6.06 m .
Youth star Shelinda dazzles in the big league
The none availability of the Asian Championship silver medalist Rumeshika Rathnayaka meant that Shelinda Jansen who is still 17 was the favourite to complete the sprint double at the trials and she finished the day with best times in both the events. Jansen clocked a personal best of 12.06 seconds in 100m heats and a seasons best of 24. 41 seconds in 200m heats and she will compete in both the finals on Sunday.
In the other events of the day Distance runner K Shanmugeswaran excelled with a personal best in 10,000m with a time of 30 minutes 30.38 seconds. In the Pole Vault there were three jumpers in first place with H.S Janith, M.P. Abeykoon, Chinthaka Dinesh all being unable to clear the starting height of 4.30m.[/vc_column_text][/vc_column][vc_column width=”1/3″][vc_widget_sidebar sidebar_id=”td-default”][/vc_column][/vc_row]
