35th National Sports Festival:

Western Province emerge champs

Anushka Withanage reporting from Polonnaruwa

Western Province emerged champions for the 34th time by bagging 77 golds at the 35th National Sports Festival which concluded at the Polonnaruwa National Stadium yesterday. Central Province ended up in second position with 45 golds.

J.A.N.K. Appuhamy of Uva Province was adjudged the best men’s athlete while Pramila Priyadarshani of Western Province was picked as the best women’s athlete.

R.A.K. Priyangika Madumanthi from North Central Province (High Jump) produced a fine performance to establish a new meet record and R.P.M.S. Wijeratne of Sabaragamuwa Province established a Sri Lanka record on the final day of the National Sports Festival which concluded here today.

			G	S	B
Western Province	77	55	50
Central Province	45	37	45
North Western Province	33	23	22
Sabaragamuwa Province	14	19	19
North Central Province	10	15	33
Southern Province	08	27	35
Uva Province		07	11	18
Eastern Province	04	04	03
North Province		00	01	01

Priyangika Madumanthi in fact improved on her own performance in the women’s High Jump final by clearing a height of 1.78 metres. She bettered her previous best effort of 1.77 metres which was set up in 2007.

The closing ceremony of the National Sports Festival took on a festive air with two thousand five hundred and sixty five athletes in attendance under the patronage of Prime Minster Ratnasiri Wickramanayake, Minister of Mahaweli Development Maithripala Sirisena and Minister of Sports and Public Recreation Gamini Lokuge.

The results of other events:

Men’s 5000m (Chaminda Wijekon of Uva Province - 15.15.08 sec), Women’s Triple Jump (J.A.N.K Appuhamy of Uva Province -15.61m), Women’s 10,000 m (M.A Chandrawathi of North Central Province - 39.28.63 sec), Women’s Shot Putt (M.N.D. Muthunayake of North Western Province - 13.89m), Women’s 400m (E.W.E. Rathnakumari of Central Province - 57.87 sec), Men’s 400m (Rohan Pradeep Kumara of Eastern Province - 48.84 sec), Women’s 1,500m (N.M.C Dilrukshi of North Western Province - 4.45.15 sec), Men’s 110m (K.W. Salinda Randima of Western Province - 15.37 sec), Women’s 100m (D.A.H. Wijesinghe of Sabaragamuwa Province - 14.82 sec), Men’s 1,500m (Chaminda Wijekoon of Uva Province - 3.55.68 sec), Women’s 100m (P. Priyadarshani of Western Province - 12.27 sec), Men’s Javelin Throw (R.P. Waruna Lakshan - 64.21m), Men’s 100m (J.N. Fernando of North Western Province - 11.11 sec), Women’ Triple Jump (Ruwani Rubasinghe of South Province - 12.56m). Cricket (Men’s) Champions - North Central Province and Karate (women’s) Champions - Western Province.