Five Lankan athletes in action

Prince Gunasekara reporting from Nanjing, China

The five Lankan athletes will be competing in men’s and women’s 100m, 400m and 1,500m, which Sri Lanka eyes medals at the week-long Asia’s biggest youth sports extravaganza, Asian Youth Games which starts today (18) at Nanjing China. In today’s 100m heats, Colombo Ananda College’s AL Kariyawasam will out to the field after his excellent timing set at the John Tarbet Junior Athletics Championship held at Diyagama Mahinda Rajapaksa Stadium, Homagama. The youngster clocked an impressive 10.90 seconds a fortnight ago.

Kandy High School’s Maduwanthi Dissanayake will participate in the women’s 100m heats today. Dissanayake timed 12.83 seconds at a Selection Trial held in Colombo prior to the Nanjing meet a few week’s ago.

Shehan Lakshika of Jennings International School, Negombo qualified for the men’s 400m event at the same Selection Trial, where he recorded 50.72 seconds. The schoolgirl of Kataluwa Maha Vidyalaya, Nirmali Madushika will be competing in the women’s 400m event. Madushika timed 56.47 seconds at the recently concluded John Tarbet Junior National Athletics Championship.

In the women’s 1,500m event, Nishanthi Dilhani of Kuliyapitiya Central College will be in action today . Dilhani joined the Nanjing tour after her 2:15.32 time recorded at the John Tarbet Junior National Athletics Championship.

Sri Lanka fielded 28 athletes in 2009 and bagged silver medal and two bronze, which came only in the track and field events in the history of Asian Youth Games. In the men’s 200m relay team comprised of Madusanka Athauda, Heshan Amarasinghe, Ashan Fernando and Dulaj Lahiru won the silver. Indunil Madushan won the 800m bronze and the women’s 200m relay quartet – Akshana Maralanda, Nadeeshani Henderson, Nimesha Siriwardena and Pabasara Senanayake won the bronze as well.

Sri Lanka is fielding 37 athletes in the 2nd Asian Youth Games this year. They will compete in Seven-a-Side Rugby, Athletics, Swimming, Shooting, Table Tennis, Wight Lifting, Tennis and Squash and look forward to better their results than in 2009 at the first edition of the Asian Youth Games.

This year edition will no doubt create a platform for the Sri Lankans to perform better when the island nation will host the 3rd Edition of the Asian Youth Games in Hambantota, Sri Lanka in 2017.