Sets new Sri Lanka record clocking 3:39.61:

Wijekoon in men’s 1,500m semis

Dinesh Weerawansa reportin from South Korea

Asian Championship medallist Chaminda Wijekoon set a new Sri Lanka record in qualifying to run in Thursday’s men’s 1,500m semi finals of the 13th IAAF World Championship now in progress in South Korea. In the men’s 1,500m qualifying round heats worked off at the Daegu Stadium here today, the champion Sri Lanka middle distance runner came out with a superb timing of three minutes, 39.61 seconds to better his own national mark.

Thus, Wijekoon became the first ever Sri Lankan competitor to enter a men’s semi final in the 28-year-old World Championship history. It was in Kobe, Japan last month that Wijekoon bagged men’s 1,500m bronze medal clocking 3:40.78 – a new Sri Lanka record. Within a few weeks’ time, he has bettered his own mark. This is the first time that Wijekoon broke the 3/40 barrier.

Wijekoon, who turns 30 next month, made the best use of his dashing sprint in the final lap to go pass several competitors and settle for the seventh place in first of the three men’s 1,500m heats worked off under ideal weather conditions this morning. Of the 12 runners in heat one, Wijekoon was placed 11th just ahead of Mohammed Shaween after the halfway 800m mark. He turned out to be the last of the remaining 11 after the Saudi Arabian withdrew after completing 1,100m. It was then that the Lankan runner fired all his cylinders like a sprinter and advanced from the last eleventh place to the seventh during the last 400m of the race, won by his Kenyan training partner and former World Indoor Championship silver medallist Daniel Kipchirchir Komen in 3:38.54. Komen was the clear leader right from the start to the end and was never challenged by 2006 Commonwealth Games gold medallist Nicholas Willis of New Zealand who settled for the second place with a timing of 3:39.24.

He passed 800m in 1:54.70 tracked by South Korea’s Sin Sang-Min with a 10m gap on the rest of the field. The home favourite quickly dropped away but Komen had doubled his advantage to more than 20m at the bell and was content to ease around the final lap to take victory. Out of all 38 runners who competed in the three men’s 1,500m heats today, Wijekoon was placed seventh in the overall list, headed by Komen.

Speaking exclusively to the Daily News immediately after his record performance, Wijekoon said he has achieved his initial goal. “As I have told you before my first target was to better my own Sri Lanka record which I achieved today,” he said with a smile.

Asked how his training stint in Kenya has contributed to his success Wijekoon said; Obviously you could see my transformation. I have been training in Kenya for the last few years, competing and training with some of the best middle distance runners in the world. Hence, I felt comfortable when running neck to neck with competitors from the African continent. But the Lankan runner has been troubled by a leg injury in recent times. “I would have done much better both here and at Asian Championships if not for my leg injury. In fact, I was planning to run under 3/40 at the Asian Championship. If not for my injury, I am now in a position to improve on my timing upto 3/36,” a determined Wijekoon said.

Wijekoon is only the second Sri Lankan to enter a World Championship semi final after Susanthika Jayasinghe, who achieved this feat twice - in Athens 1997 and Osaka 2007. On both occasions, Jayasinghe went on to enter the finals and win a silver and a bronze medal respectively. Wijekoon now aims to emulate that gigantic feat by making “at least to the final”.

“My target right now is to secure a place in the final. I think I could make it, provided the leg injury does not hamper my normal run,” he said.

Wijekoon has now been drawn to compete in the second semi final of the men’s 1,500m event scheduled for Thursday at 8.05 p.m. local time - 4.35 p.m. SL time.

Twelve competitors will run in each of the two semi finals. The final of this event is scheduled for Saturday at 8.15 p.m. local time – 4.45 p.m. SL time.

Meanwhile the President of the Athletic Association of Sri Lanka, Major General Palitha Fernando commended the performance of the Lankan lad and said that the AASL would continue to support him with his ongoing training stint in Kenya.

“I am grateful to the Major General for supporting me to go places in athletics. If my former coach had been alive (Brig. Parry Liyanage, former AASL Vice President), he would have been the happiest man today. My Kenyan coaches Jimmy Simba and Joseph Nwrey have take a lot of pain to further sharpen my skills. I am ever grateful to all of them,” he added.

Two-times European champion Mehdi Baala of France was the major casualty of the opening round after of men’s 1,500m as he appeared to be clipped from behind by Tarek Boukensa of Algeria and crashed to the track as he entered the final straight.

A protest was later filed by the French Federation, and accepted by the Jury of Appeal, admitting Baala to the next round as an additional athlete.

Kenya’s Olympic champion Asbel Kiprop had a smooth passage winning his heat in 3:41.22. Ethiopia’s Mekonnen Gebremedhin finished second just 0.06 further back with Abdalaati Iguider of Morocco, the World Indoor silver medallist, third in 3:41.41.

A messy final lap in heat three saw several physical clashes with defending champion Yusuf Saad Kamel looking in perilous danger of elimination with a little over 200m as he faced a bank of bodies in front of him.

But the Bahrain found a gap on the inside around the final bend and had enough pace down the home stretch to secure the fifth place clocking 3:40.97.

DAEGU, Tuesday