The opening day of the Athletic competitions at the 18th Asian Games 2018 was held today at the Gelora Bung Karno stadium in Jakarta Indonesia and featured four Sri Lankan athletes.
Prasad through to the finals
Long Jumper Prasad Wimalasiri who competed in the Men’s Long Jump qualification round managed to secure a spot in the final of the event. Despite not being able to clear the qualification mark of 7.80m Prasad was placed 11th overall for his second attempt which was measured at 7.56m. With a disqualified second jump Prasad opted to sit out the last round but eventually made the cut to take part in the final of the event as the 11th out of 12 athletes who qualified. Prasad who was adjudged the best athlete at the recently concluded National Athletic Championship reached a personal best mark of 8.14m at the event a mere 0.01m short of the National record which is 8.15m. Prasad will compete in the Final of the event which is scheduled to be held at 5:10pm tomorrow (26th August)
Aruna misses out while Kalinga makes the cut
Kalinga Kumara qualified to the finals of the Men’s 400m as one of the two fastest losers finishing 3rd clocking 46.21secs in the second semifinal heat of the event. Kalinga who was placed third overall after the first round took part in a difficult heat which featured Yahiya Mohammed of India who has currently clocked the overall best time clocking 45.30secs in the semifinal while Julian Walsh of Japan was placed second in the event. Kalinga will compete in the Men’s 400m final which is scheduled to be held at 5.40pm tomorrow (26th August) Sri Lankan time.
Aruna Darshana who took part in the first semifinal was placed third clocking 46.53secs and missed out a spot in the final as he was beaten by Indian Arokia Rajiv who managed to get ahead of Aruna in the home straight to clinch the second place and with it an automatic qualification spot along with Qatari Abbas Abbas who was the top seed in the semifinal.
Earlier in the day Aruna Darshana made easy work of his first-round heat where he managed to win it with ease to secure a spot in the semifinal. Kalinga Kumara was drawn into what would be the fastest heat of the day and was paced third clocking a personal best time of 45.99secs.
Kalinga and Aruna cruise to the Semis
The top two Sri Lankan quarter milers, Aruna Darshana and Kalinga Kumarage qualified to the semifinals of the men’s……
Marathoner Hiruni Wijerathne who opted to compete in the Women’s 10000m instead of her pet event Marathon had an abrupt end to her Asian Games journey as she failed to finish the race. Hiruni was part of pre-race confusion where she was seen wearing two different BIB numbers on her front and back while another athlete was not allowed to take part in the race despite already lining up at the start line. Hiruni was not able to keep up with the pace of the leading athletes and decided to quit the race with 7 laps to spare.
Live Blog: Asian Games 2018 – Day 7
The 2018 Asian Games is scheduled to be held from 18 August to 2 September 2018 in the Indonesian cities of Jakarta and Palembang.
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