Gayanthika dazzles with two SL records at athletic nationals

By Susil Premalal

Gayanthika Abeyratne stole the limelight on the final day of the 99th National Athletic Championships Stages 2 & 3 when she established two new Sri Lanka records at the Sugathadasa Stadium in Colombo yesterday.
Five Sri Lanka records and one meet record have been established in total at the championships this year.
Gayanthika (34) from Sri Lanka Navy claimed the 1500m with a time of 04:9.12s and once again came up with a splendid performance in the 5,000m with a time of 15:55.84s erasing the previous record of 16:17.51s set by Hiruni Wijayaratne in 2020. The previous record of 04:15.86s in the 1,500m event was set by Nimali Liyanaarachchi at the 2019 Nationals. 

Sachini Perera bettered her own Sri Lanka record of 3.56m in the Women’s pole vault with an effort of 3.57m. Meanwhile, Sarangi Silva (Sri Lanka Army) also bettered her own long jump record by four centimetres (6.48m).
Roshan Ranatunga of Sri Lanka Army established the only Sri Lanka record in the Men’s category when he clocked 13.89s in the 110m hurdles, erasing the previous record of 14.00s set by Mahesh Perera way back in 1997.     
In addition, M. Fernando of Sri Lanka Army set the only meet record when he produced a performance of 17.36m in the Men’s shot put.