High Jumper Manjula wins a gold at Asian Athletic Meet
Walter Jayawardhana
University of Southern California (USC) student Manjula Kumara
Wijesekera (25) representing Sri Lanka bagged the first gold medal for
his country at the Asian Athletic Championships in China.
Wijesekera brought home for Sri Lanka the gold medal for high jump
winning the event by achieving a height of 2.23 m allowing China’s Huang
Haiqiang to grab the silver and Kazakhstant’s Vitaliy Tsykunov to take
the bronze.
He was quoted having declared, I am not satisfied with the result of
2.23m, although I am happy with the win. It is awesome.
Wijesekera’s personal best is 2.27 m. which he gained in South Korea.
Next year Wijesekera is expected to represent his school at American
Universities athletic meet.
He will also come back to the Asian Games next time and will try to
participate in the Commonwealth Games too. Pre-event favourites
Malaysia’s Lee Hup Wei, the defending champion, and Japan’s Daigo
Naoyuki, bronze medallist of 2006 Asian Games, ranked only fifth and
sixth respectively, in this fiercely contested event.
This is the second gold medal he has won for the same event as he
bagged a gold medal for Sri Lanka in the Asian Games in 2005 in South
Korea.
He was sidelined from the games for about two years due to an injury. |