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| Saturday, 24 July 2004 |
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Manjula's record breaking jump helps him to Olympics by Dinesh Weerawansa Soldier Manjula Kumara Wijesekera created history when he established a new Sri Lanka record and qualified to compete at Athens Olympic Games on the opening day of the 82nd Sri Lanka National Athletic Championships begun at Sugathadasa Stadium, Colombo yesterday. Competing in his pet event the high jump, Wijesekera cleared an impressive 2.273m to win the event in style. It not only bettered his own Sri Lanka mark of 2.25m, established during the Colombo Grand Prix last month, but also ahead of Olympic 'B' qualification mark of 2.27m. Since the Athletic Association of Sri Lanka has obtained prior permission from the IAAF for late accreditation, Wijesekera could now compete at the forthcoming Olympic Games in Greece next month. Wijesekera, who is attached to the Electrical and Mechanical division of the Sri Lanka Army, would now become the fifth Sri Lankan athlete to qualify for the Olympics after Susanthika Jayasinghe (women's 100m), Damayanthi Darsha (women's 400m), Rohan Pradeep Kumara Fernando (men's 400m) and Anuruddha Indrajith Cooray (men's marathon). The champion high jumper was humble in victory and said his aim now is to qualify for the finals. "I am happy that I could make it to Olympics. It was a lot of hard work and dedication. Many people helped me to come this long. I want to make it to the finals. I target 2.27m once again in the qualifying rounds of the Olympics. That is enough for me to make it to the finals Athens. Wijesekera is probably the first ever Sri Lankan athlete to qualify for a field event in the Olympic Games history. His coach Captain K.H. Keerthi Kumara said the lad has put a lot of effort to be there and should do even better at the Athens Games. Nine women sprinters, including South Asian Games 100m gold medallist Jani Chathurangani Silva, Sujani Buddhika and Achala Dias, were disqualified from women's 200m after they failed to report to starter on time, despite several calls. Hence, the women's 200m would now be run as a straight final today. The notable absentee in this event is Olympic medallist Jayasinghe, who is skipping the Nationals on medical advise. The only other hopeful of an eleventh hour inclusion to the Sri Lanka Olympic contingent is sprinter Prasanna Amarasekera. He stands a slim chance of making it to Athens if he does the men's 200m under 20.75 seconds in today's final. He was 0.11 seconds short of the Olympic qualification mark in yesterday's fist round heats. Former Asian Games gold medallist, Sugath Tillakaratne, returning to the track after a leg injury which kept him out of Asian Grand Prix, won his men's 400m heat but only clocked a 46 plus. A.B. Pradeep Nishantha (Lanka Lions) cleared 69.01m to win men's javelin throw, ahead of K.H.K. Gunatillake (SL Navy - 65.99m) and G. Tillakaratne (Lanka Lions - 63.43m). National champion Padma Nandani Wijesundara was pushed to third place in women's shot putt final. A throw of 12.76m was good enough for Navy's M.N.D. Muthunayake to win women's shot putt final. The second and third places were won by Trackmasters SC's M.A.S.N. Manchanayake (12.23m) and Wijesundara, who cleared only 11.08m. The men's long jump final was won by soldier W.M.R.L. Weerakkody (7.34m), ahead of M.H.N. Prasad Dharmaratne (Kalutara DAA - 7.30m) and H.W.S. Kumara (SL Navy - 7.30m). Ratnapura's black pearl, Sijeewa Nilmini Jayasena, the Asian Championship silver medallist, clocked 17 minutes and 10 seconds to win women's 5,000m final while the second place was won by H.M.W.R. Herath of Sri Lanka Air Force (17.33). D.A. Inoka of Army came third in 17.35. Sri Lanka AC's Indika Bandara won men's 3,000m steeple chase in nine minutes and 6.5 seconds. The three-day meet, conducted by the Athletic Association of Sri Lanka, will be continued today. |
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