Junior Tarbat Athletic Championship:

Three more meet records

S M Jiffrey ABDEEN-Kandy Sports Corr reporting from Matale

Three more meet records fell at the 41st John Tarbat Junior Athletic Championship organized by Sri Lanka Schools Athletic Association and worked off at the Bernard Aluwihare Stadium, Matale yesterday.

Yesterday was the second day and today (Thursday) will be the final day.

Minister of Sports C B Ratnayake will grace the occasion as the chief guest at the awards ceremony which will take place in the afternoon.

Two of the three records which fell were by Royal College, Colombo who are one of the favourites to win the championship title this year. A total of six records have been lowered upto yesterday.

The first record to go yesterday was in the boys Under-15 Javelin Throw in which Chamika Karunaratne of Royal College threw the Javelin a distance of 57.37 metres which bettered the existing record of 50.06 metres set in 1993 by Aruna Silva of St Sebastian’s College, Moratuwa. This was one of the oldest of the meet and stood for 17 years and had been bettered by over seven metres.

The second record to go was in the girls Under-12 High Jump by Y S N Dias of Methodist College, Colombo who registered a height of 1.40 metres to better the previous record of 1.39 metres set up by E K I S Edirisinghe of Girls High School, Kandy in 2004. The third record to go in the Under-14 Javelin Throw for boys in which P P B Pathirana of Royal College, College covered a distance of 41.10 metres to eclipse the previous record of 40.66 metres set up by his school mate Chamika Karunaratne last year.

In the event for Under-15 boys 80 metres N Mathurarachchi of St Joseph’s College won in a photo finish after he returned timing of 12.1 seconds along with G S Gunatilleke of Trinity College, Kandy.