Five hundred and twenty four athletes for Asian Junior Meet

Yasaratne GAMAGE

Most of the tickets for the 15th Asian Junior Athletic Meet have been sold out, according to the organizers. The tickets for the event are issued at the Sports Development Department at Torrington and at the secretariat of the 15th Asian Junior Athletic Championship at the Sugathadasa Stadium.

There will be 524 athletes from 34 countries including Sri Lanka. The home contingent consists of 104 athletes. They are currently undergoing training at Sugathadasa Stadium. Athletes from Qatar, Kuwait and Yeman have already arrived for the meet and have started practices.

Sri Lanka as the host country hopes for more medals this year. Two women athletes, Damayanthi Dharsha and Susanthika Jayasinghe have been competent enough to set up two records on behalf of Sri Lanka which still remain untouched.

Dharsha entered the AJA Championship record book in 1994. She sprinted 100 metres in 11.42 seconds in Jakartha. Sri Lanka's outstanding sprinter Susanthika clocked 23.16 seconds to finish 200 metres in Jakartha again a decade later.

China holds the most number of records in the championships including that of Li Tao's 100 metres which he sprinted in 10.26 also in Jakarta in 1986. The oldest records account for Li Tao and another Chinese athlete Sun Xiurong. He speared a distance of 60.74 in Jakarta in the same year.

The 2012 Asian Junior top 10 list (as at May 29, 2012) includes Sri Lanka's Madushani Siriwardana in the fourth place in high jump with a height of 1.80 metres.

Wang Lin of China also records the same height and has been placed third in the top 10 list.