Can Cooray renew the national record on his adopted home turf?

Marathoner Anuradha Indrajith Cooray will be representing Sri Lanka at the International Association of Athletic Federations (IAAF) World Championships in London and will be looking to better his personal best with it taking the national record to new heights.

Currently based in England, 39 year old Cooray is the most experienced athlete of Sri Lanka. He was placed 14th in the 2015 London Marathon with a time of 2:13:47 which is not only his personal best performance but is also the current national record. It was a remarkable feat by the marathoner as he managed to break the longstanding national record which was previously set by Luciean Rosa at the 1975 Fukuoka Marathon. He also holds the national record for the half marathon with a time of 1:04:45.

Veteran Cooray has had the unique privilege of representing the country in 03 Olympic Games. Having previously represented the country in the 2004 and the 2012 editions Cooray was made the captain of the Sri Lanka contingent at Rio 2016 Olympics. At his debut Olympic Games in Greece he was placed 30th out of 113 competitors while he faced a dip in form in his second outing where he was placed 55th at the London Olympics. In the most reason Olympic Games Cooray managed to finish the race as the 34th placed competitor.

2017 IAAF World Championship will be Cooray’s third participation in the global showpiece having previously taken part in the 2005 and the 2015 editions of the championship. He could not finish the race on his debut appearance but was placed 29th in the 2015 edition with a time of 2:25:04 but later the same year showed vast improvement at the London Marathon where he managed to break the 40 year old national record to qualify for the Olympics.

After having a few quiet months, 39 year old Cooray who now resides in London had a perfect warm up run participating in the Wycombe half marathon where he emerged as the winner with a time of 1:13:28 and will be looking to turn up the heat at the World Championship which will probably be his last appearance in the event.