Two meet records set on final day
CHRIS DHAMBARAGE
W.G. Nuwan Tharanga (Southern Province) going over the final
hurdle to win the gold medal in the men’s 110m hurdles.
Pix by Ranjith Jayaweera |
The Western Province team with a huge total of 220 points, retained
the President's Trophy and the overall title at the 33rd National Sports
Festival organized by the Ministry of Sports and Recreation which
concluded at the Sugathadasa Stadium in Colombo yesterday.
The Western Province team also finished on top of the final medals
tally collecting a rich haul of 58 gold, 57 silver and 48 bronze medals.
North Western Province emerged runners up in the overall championship
with a total of 164 points to their credit.
Central Province were placed third with a total of 134 points and
they were closely followed by the Southern Province team with 131
points. In the final medals tally Central Province were placed second
with 41 gold, 32 silver and 38 bronze medals.
North Western Province team finished third with a total of 30 gold
medals, 25 silver medals and 23 bronze medals.
Prime Minister Ratnasiri Wickremanayake was the chief guest and
distributed the main awards.
Meanwhile Lal Samarasinghe of Central Province was selected as the
best men's athlete for his success in the 400 metres hurdles event where
he returned a timing of 52.54 seconds. S. M. C. S. Rasanayake of North
Western Province was picked as the best women's athlete for winning the
400 metres with a timing of 54.21 seconds.
Jani Chaturangani de Silva of North Western Province completed a
grand sprint double by winning the women's 100 metres dash with a timing
of 12.06 seconds. She had earlier won the women's 200 metres dash quite
convincingly.
In addition two new records were established on the third and final
day in the track and field events. M. N. P. Muthunayake of North Western
Province established a new Games record in the women's shot putt final.
She cleared a distance of 14.21 metres to erasing her own record of
14.15 metres which was set at last years meet.
In fact Muthunayake is also the holder of the Sri Lanka record with a
performance of 14.45 metres.
The second record of the day was set up by R. K. A. P. Maduwanthi
from North Western Province in the women's high jump event.
Maduwanthi who also holds the Sri Lanka record for this event
produced a fine effort of 1.77 metres to lower the previous record held
by Tharanga Vinodiani at last years meet.
Meanwhile veteran Ruwan Pradeep Perera from Western Province retained
the men's pole vault title for another year with a fine performance of
4.50 metres in the final.
Perera who is the holder of the Sri Lanka record (4.85 metres) and
the National Sports Festival record (4.61 metres) had little
difficulties in winning the gold medal.
Athletes from Western Province dominated the men's 400 metres final
with Suresh Deepal and Lakmal Anuruddha winning the gold medal and the
silver medals respectively.
However Nuwan Tharanga from the Southern Province put up a stunning
performance to take the gold medal in the men's 110 metres hurdles with
a time of 14.58 seconds.
Sabaragamuwa Province dominated the women's 100 metres hurdles event
with B. G. L. Maduwanthi and D. A. H. Wijesinghe winning the gold and
silver medals respectively.
The Western Province team also took the gold medal in the men's 4x400
metres relay event clocking three minutes 17.35 seconds while
Sabaragamuwa Province came first in the women's 4x400 metres relay
final. In the women's 4x100 metres relay final North Western Province
clocked 46.73 seconds to take the gold medal.
In the men's 800 metres final P. K. Mendis of Sabaragamuwa Province
won the gold medal with a time of 1.50.85 seconds while Central Province
athlete K. L. L. Gunawardana took the women's 800 metres title clocking
2.11.52 seconds.
Meanwhile Ajith Bandara of North Western Province lived upto
expectations by winning the men's 5000 metres event clocking 14 minutes
33.70 seconds.
T. S. Jayasekera of Southern Province came first in the women's
10,000 metres event clocking 36 minutes 14.87 seconds.
The North Western Province team emerged champions in the boxing
championships while collecting a total of five gold medals, one silver
medal and one bronze medal.
The Sabaragamuwa Province team emerged runners up with two gold
medals, one silver medal and two bronze medals while North Central
Province with two gold medals and three bronze medals were placed third
in the overall championship. K. L. Rupasinghe of Uva Province who
competed in the light welter weight under 60 kgs weight class category
was named as the best boxer at the meet.
In addition Chinthana Vidanage of North Central Province who set up
three new records on day two of the games was picked as the best
competitor in the weight lifting championship.
Final Points Table
Western 220
Central 134
North Western 164
Southern 131
North Central 93
Sabaragamuwa 64
Uva 47
Eastern 07
Northern 00
Final Medal Tally
Gold Silver Bronze
Western 58 57 48
Central 41 32 38
North Western 30 25 23
Southern 15 14 41
Sabaragamuwa 12 11 26
North Central 11 19 15
Uva 05 13 18
Eastern 00 01 02
Northern 00 01 00 |