Athletes in race against time to qualify for Olympics

By Susil Premalal
Sri Lanka will keep their hopes alive of a Paris Olympic Qualification when Elite pool athletes Tharushi Karunarathna (800m Women), Nadeesha Ramanayake (400m Women) and Kalinga Kumarage (400m Men) participate in the 11th Kinami Michitaka Memorial Athletics Meet on Sunday 
in Osaka, Japan.
After that, Kumarage is set to compete in the Seiko Grand Prix event in Tokyo, Japan on May 19.
The Sri Lanka Elite athletes Aruna Dharshana, Kumarage, Sumeda Ranasinghe, Karunarathna, Nadeesha Ramanayake, Dilhani Lekamge and Gayanthika Abeyrathna are set to participate in six international events before June 15 as they continue their search for a Paris Olympic berth.
Meanwhile, the South Asian fastest sprinter and Birmingham Commonwealth Games Bronze Medallist Yupun Abeykoon will not compete in any of these international events but will participate in a few European regional meets, Sri Lanka Athletic announced.

Abeykoon clocked 10.18s and secured third place in the Men’s 100m at the recent Dubai Grand Prix Meet in the UAE although the qualifying standard time is at 10.00s.
If Abeykoon fails to reach the Olympic Qualifying standard during the European regional meets, it will be mandatory for him to participate in the 102nd Sri Lanka Athletic Nationals along with the rest of the Elite athletes on June 23 to 25 at the Sugathadasa Stadium in Colombo.
Meanwhile, Hangzhou Asian Games Gold Medallist Karunarathna’s failure to finish her event at the Dubai Grand Prix was due to fatigue and not due to an injury, her coach Susantha Fernando confirmed.  
Fernando also stressed the importance of having a break for the athletes between the events and expressed his confidence in the current set of athletes, who have left for Japan.