Randeniya, Chamika bag medals

Two more bronze medals for Sri Lanka:

Yasaratne GAMAGE Reporting from the Sugathadasa Stadium

Supun Viraj Randeniya (men’s 110 metres hurdles - 13.94 seconds) and R A Chamika Jayamini (women’s 3000 metres steeple chase- 10 minutes 55.76 seconds) added two more bronze medals to the Sri Lankan medal count on the third day of the 15th Asian Junior Athletic Championships which continued at the Sugathadasa Stadium yesterday.

The lad from Ranabima Royal College, Peradeniya, proved that he is ready to go places, giving the best run of his life at yesterday’s final to win the bronze medal.

Thailand’s Kongdee Klittipong clocked 13.86 seconds in the event, giving his country the first gold medal at the 15th version of the games.

Cheng Yun Yin of Chinese Taipei finished one hundredths of a second later to win the silver ahead of Randeniya.

Randeniya qualified for yesterday’s final when he clocked his previous personal best of 14.08 seconds, breaking a long standing junior national record, held by Olympian Mahesh Perera, on Sunday. Chamika who hails from Andana, Ratnapura also proved that rural athletes too can conquer international athletic arena when given an opportunity.

More gold medals heaped up for Chinese Taipei when Li Ting Yu bagged the gold medal in the women’s 3000 metres steeple chase in 10 minutes 44.94 seconds while Japanese Sato Mizuki clocked 10 minutes 45.07 seconds to grab the silver with a comfortable lead ahead of Sri Lankan Chamika.

Decathlon gold medal for Chinese Taipei

Mao Chi Shun of Chinese Taipei collected a total of 6252 points to win the gold medal in the men’s decathlon while Alzeed Magid of Kuwait won the silver with 5957 points. Sanaei of Iran won the bronze, collecting 5422 points.

There were two new meet records including an Asian Junior record. In the men’s hammer throw, Qatari athlete Ashraf Amgad Elseify threw a record distance of 80.85 metres to erase the earlier record held by India’s Harinder Singh who had thrown 71.53 metres in Hanoi in 2010.

Sukhdev Singh of India won the silver with a 65.25 metre throw and Alhenoal Mobarais of Kuwait cleared a distance of 59.86 metres to bag bronze.

Xu Huiqin of China cleared 4.25 metres to set up a new meet record in the women’s pole vault. She bettered the earlier record held by two Chinese athletes, Zhao Yingying and Zhang Yingying who had cleared 4.20 metres in Ipoh and Macau respectively. Malaysian Chuah Yu Tian registered a height of 3.40 metres and won the silver whereas Liu Yu Yao of Chinese Taipei recorded the same height and won the bronze medal.

Today is the final day of the event.