Four new records at Junior Athletic Nationals

Thushen Silva of Maris Stella College Negombo U-18 boys  pole vault action

By Susil Premalal

Four new meet records were established on the opening day of the Sri Lanka Athletics (SLA) organised Junior National Athletic Championships at the Sugathadasa Stadium in Colombo yesterday.

 The best effort came from Nadun Bandara of Royal College, Colombo where he won the Boys’ Under-20, 110 metres hurdles event with a record time of 14.14 seconds while erasing the previous best of 14.19s.

In fact, Bandara has already reached the qualifying standards to represent the country in the Boys’ Under-20, 110m hurdles event at the World Junior Athletics Championships.
 The initial qualifying standard for the Boys’ 110m hurdles was 14.20s and Bandara did extremely well to finish the event with a time of 14.14s.  

 Meanwhile, Madushani Herath of Nannapuruwa MV, Bibile set up a new meet record in the Girls’ long jump event with a performance of 5.98m to better the previous record of 5.77m.
In addition, Jayavi Ranhidu of Royal College, Panadura won the Boys’ Under-18, shot put with a record-breaking performance of 16.98m to better the previous record of 16.48m.
 The fourth record of the day was established by Keshavi Udeshani of Princes of Wales College, Moratuwa where she won the Girls’ Under-16, javelin throw event with an effort of 37.42m.
 The previous record in this event was 34.47m.  

•  The initial qualifying standard for the Boys’ 110m hurdles was 14.20s and Bandara did extremely well to finish the event with a time of 14.14s