Anuradha Cooray to run marathon today

From our cor. in Rio

RIO DE JANAIRO, Aug. 20. – Sri Lanka will pin its last hope at the XXX1th Olympic Games on its veteran long distance runner Anuradha Indrajith Cooray who will be competing in the men’s marathon to be worked off here on Sunday (21).

This will be the third time that the 38-year-old will be competing in an Olympic marathon race, having done so in Athens 2004 and London 2012. The London-based Lankan runner said his preparations for the 2016 Rio Games are much better than what he had done for the last Olympic Games four years ago.

“Honestly, I could not make much preparations for the last Olympic Games which had come my way totally unexpectedly. In contrast, I am on a much better footing in my lead up for the Rio 2016 Games,” said Cooray after a final work out on the eve of his crucial race.

“I knew that I have to compete in 2016 Olympics well in advance. My timing at 2015 London Marathon was good enough to earn a slot for the Rio Games.

Hence, I knew that I could compete in Rio Olympics more than a year before my race. I feel that I have made adequate preparations,” he said.

Cooray added that he had gone to Kenya six times since then for intensive training. “Kenya is the best place for long distance runners to train, especially races like marathon. I have been working hard there. My target is to improve on my Sri Lanka marathon record,” said Cooray whose stunning performance at last year’s London Marathon shattered 40-year-old Sri Lanka marathon record, held by former Asian Games gold medallist S.L.B. Rosa.

“I was privileged to erase the Sri Lanka national record held by one of the greatest long distance runners that Sri Lanka has ever produced. I am looking forward to improve it further,” said Cooray.

Sri Lanka’s flag bearer at the 2016 Olympic Games opening ceremony fells that he would achieve that if he gets into the bunch of Canadians who run slightly above his timing. “They will run something around two hours ten minutes. If I could hold on to their bunch, I should be able to achieve a better timing,” he said.

But Cooray said that all those dreams would depend on the |temperature that Rio would experience on Sunday morning. “If the weather keeps fine and the temperature is not that high, I should be able to go for my target,” he added, Cooray said it was the unfavourable weather conditions which hampered not only his individual performance but also that of other competitors at last year’s IAAF World Championships in Beijing and hoped that a situation may not arise here.

The hot favourate to win the men’s marathon in Rio is Kenya’s Eliud Kipchoge who has been the most dominant marathon runner in the world since the start of 2014 and now has five consecutive wins in top-class races to his name, all in fast times including his world-leading 2:03:05 that he ran to win in London in April.