World Athletics Under 20 Championships Sri Lanka seventh in 400m Relay Mixed event

Sri Lanka’s Junior 4x400m Relay Mixed team finished seventh at the World Junior Athletics Championships in Kenya yesterday, with sprinter Medhani Jayamanne qualifying for the semi-finals of the Women’s 100m. 
This was the first championship that Sri Lanka was fielding a team for the Mixed relay, and the team comprising of Dilshan Udunuwara, Tharushi Dissanayaka, Lakshima Mendis, and Isuru Abeywardena clocked a time of 3:26.39secs, which was almost seven seconds behind the gold medal winning team from Nigeria. 

Bamidele Ajayi, running the last leg for Nigeria, clawed down Poland’s Patryk Grzegorzewicz to win by one-tenth of a second, with India taking bronze. 

Sri Lanka’s time in the final was an improvement on the 3:26.62secs they recorded in the heats. 
Jayamanne meanwhile, could not qualify for the final of the Women’s 100m, finishing seventh in the first semi-final. 

Her effort of 12.01secs had seen her progress to the semi-finals, and though she slightly improved on it, clocking 11.96secs, she could not make the final eight. 

It was a busy day for Abeywardena who ran thrice over 400m, twice in the relay and once in the heats of the individual event. 

In the individual heats, Abeywardena finished seventh with a time of 48.02secs which was not enough to qualify for the finals. 

Today, Shanika Lakshani and Tharushi Dissanayake will take part in the Women’s 800m Heats. 

Lakshani will run in the first heat at 1:20 p.m. (Sri Lanka time) while Dissanayake will take part in the second heat at 1:28 p.m.