98th Nationals; Himasha Eshan and Amasha de Silva become the fastest athletes

By Dhammika Ratnaweera

Himasha Eshan and Amasha de Silva became the fastest athletes by winning the men’s and women’s 100m on the third day of the 98 th National Athletic championship which is now in progress at the Sugatadasa Stadium in Colombo.
Both Eshan and Amasha won the silver medals at the last South Asian Games 100 m events once again back to the form with running more confidence to take gold medals this time at this National Championships which conducted by the Sri Lanka Athletics under the health guidelines due to Global viral Covid 19.
The 21-year-old Amasha de Silva, the product from Swarnamali BMV Kandy presently represent at Sri Lanka Army finished the race with 11. 55 seconds which is her personal best to win the event. Amasha became the fourth-fastest Sri Lankan 100m athlete of Sri Lanka history behind Rumeshika Ratnayake, Dhamayanthi Dharsha, and Susanthika Jayasinghe. This time also marks the fastest time by a female athlete in SL since Susanthika Jayasinghe’s 11.33 seconds in 2006, and second fastest overall for the last 12 years, only behind Rumeshika Rathnayaka’s 11.51 in Australia in 2018.

Rumeshika Ratnayake who came back to the action after injury finished second with 11.88 seconds in this Nationals.  Fathoms Yamick won the third-place clocking 12.05 seconds.
At the men’s 100m final Himasha Eshan finished with 10.25 second to collect the gold while Chanuka Sandeepa (10.49 sec) and Vinod Suranjaya de Silva (10.50 sec) were placed in second and third places with a difference of 0.01 seconds.
Meanwhile, Shyama Dulani from Sri Lanka Army clinched the gold medal at the women’s 400 m hurdles with 1.02.90 seconds while Soldier Asitha  Ratnasena was first place at the men’s 400 m hurdles clocking 52.09 seconds. The experienced Javalin thrower Nadeeka Lakmali once again showed her ability to win the gold medal. Lakmali who got the chance to take part in Beijing Olympics in 2008 was the last South Asian Games, silver medalist. Dilhani Lekamge was the SAG gold medal winner but this time Lakmali was able to beat Lekamge with a clear lead in this event. Lakmali finished with 53.97 m while Lekamge had to satisfied with a silver medal for her distance of  48.99m and D.H Maduwanthi was third place with a distance of 44.80m.  SAG medalist K. Shanmugeswaran was beaten by A.K. Tharanga in the 10,000m. Tharanga clocked 30 minutes 42.15 seconds to win the event. Men’s high jump event won by C.L Mendis while men’s Pole Vault won by S.E Janith.

South Asian silver medalist Tharika Fernando won the women’s shot put event with 14.10m while Nadeeka Muthunayake was placed second with 12.70m. South Asian Gold medalist Hashini Balasooriya won the women’s Triple Jump title with a leap of 13.07m.

The final day of the National Athletic Championships will commence tomorrow(29). The men and women 400 m event will be a more attractive one. Nedeesha Ramanayake and Dilshi Kumarasinghe will compete for women’s 400m while Kalinga Kumarage and Anura Dharshana will be the main attraction of the men’s 400m.