Four athletes qualify for World Junior meet

By Susil Premalal

Four athletes have qualified to represent Sri Lanka at the World Under-20 Athletics Championships to be held next month.  

Representatives from 156 countries numbering 1462 competitors will be participating in the championship to be held from August 17 to 22 in Nairobi, Kenya.  

Medhani Jayamanne (200m women) of Lumbini College, Colombo, Isuru Kaushalya Abayawardena (400m men) of Ananda Sastralaya, Matugama, Shanika Lakshani (800m women) of Holy Cross College, Gampaha and Tharushi Karunaratne (800m women) of A. Ratnayake MMV, Walala have gained qualification.  

Sri Lanka Athletics (SLA) will conduct a final selection trial for this championship on July 25 at the Sugathadasa Stadium.  

The events will be limited to 100m, 200m, 400m, 110m hurdles, 100m hurdles, 400m hurdles, high jump, long jump, triple jump and javelin for both men and women.  

SLA Recorder Saman Kumara Gunawardena was hopeful that four or five more athletes would gain qualification for the World Junior meet at the selection trials.  

Meanwhile, Sri Lanka won a total of nine medals (one gold, four silver and four bronze) at the 60th National Inter-State Senior Athletics Championship in Patiala, India.  

Kalinga Kumarage won a gold medal in the 400m and silver in the 200m. Medhani Jayamanne (200m), Amasha de Silva (100m) and 4x100m women’s relay teams won silver medals.  

The bronze medals were claimed by Nilani Ratnayake (3,000m steeplechase), Sumedha Ranasinghe (javelin), Lakshitha Sugandi (400m hurdles) and Nimali Liyanarachchi (800m).