Sports

Two National records shattered on day one

BY DINESH Weerawansa

TWO new National records were established on the opening day of the 83rd Sri Lanka National Athletic Championships begun at Sugathadasa Stadium, Colombo, yesterday.

Nadeeka Lakmali of Sri Lanka Army stole the limelight on day one of the three-day event, conducted by the Athletic Association of Sri Lanka which also would serve as a trial to pick Sri Lanka pools for the forthcoming Asian Championships in South Korea in September and 10th South Asian Games in Colombo next year.

Lakmali had a double success in winning women's javelin throw. Her 54.00m clearance was not only good enough to earn her the first place, pushing aside Asian Championship silver medallist Anne Maheshi Silva of Sri Lanka Navy for the second place, but also to earn the national championship record.

Lakmali, thus erased the national championship record of 52.88m held by Anne Madeshi Silva since 2002. But the woman sailor, who cleared only 53.15m to secure the second place, continues to hold the Sri Lanka record (yet to be ratified officially) of 55.60 in Trincomalee this year.

Apart from Lakmali's feat, the only other record on the opening day was in the men's Triple jump, where S.D.P. Sampath Weerasinghe of Sri Lak leaped 15.95m. He erased the national championship record of 15.91m held by his club mate J.N.K. Appuhamy in 2003.

However, Weerasinghe's feat was slightly behind the Sri Lanka record of 16.10m held by Nelan Siriwardena since 1998.

Four other finals were worked off on day one. The winners in the respective finals were Shot put men: W.U.L.O.R. Perera of Kurunegala DAA (14.49m), Pole Vault women: N.V. Hettiarachchi of Sri Lanka Schools (2.15m), 2,000m steeple chase for women: K.H.N. Damayanthi (unattached) (7mts, 25.79 sec.) and 3,000m Steeple chase for men: Indika Bandara (Sri Lak) (9 mts, 03.58 sec.).

Today is the second day of the meet and the day's events would commence at 2 p.m. with men's discus throw and pole vault final. A total of 13 finals are to be worked off today and the day's order of events would end with the men's 5,000m final at 5.15 p.m.

Tomorrow's events will commence at 8.30 a.m. with women's 10,000m final and ends at 4 p.m. with men's and women's 400m finals.

A keen tussle for supremacy is expected between Rohan Pradeep Kumara and compatriot Prasanna Amarasekera in men's 400m event. A total of 15 finals are scheduled for tomorrow.