Middle Distance runner, Nimali Liyanarachchi again sealed the first place of women’s 800m in the second leg of the Asian Grand Prix held at Thammasat University sports complex, Bangkok yesterday.
Nimali clocked an improvised timing of 2 minutes 06. 14 seconds compared to her 2 minutes 7 seconds in the first leg, for the win, where her former training partner Gayanthika Abeyratne clocked 2 minutes 06. 25 seconds to get third place behind India’s Gomathi Mrimuth. While the two girls from Sooriyawewa medaled in the women’s 800m, men’s 800m runner Indunil Herath clocked 1 minute 50.23 seconds and finished second, the same place he attained in the earlier edition.
Men’s 400m runner Kalinga Kumarage while finishing in 6th position he was able to clock his personal best of 46.57 seconds in the race. his time of 46.57 seconds is the fastest 400m time by Sri Lankan after Prasanna Amarasekara’s 46.35 seconds in Asian Games 2010.
Sri Lanka men’s 4X100m relay team finished in 4th position after doing so well in the 1st leg to finish in 2nd place. Suranjaya de Silva who was injured during warm-ups in the 1st leg wasn’t still fit for the race and Mohammad Rajaskhan joined the team where they clocked 39.74 seconds to finish 4th in a relay won by Asian Championship winners Hong Kong . Thailand and India, who finished behind Sri Lanka in the Asian Championship as well as the 1st leg of Asian Grand Prix, finished second and third respectively.
Meanwhile high jumper Manjula Kumara Wijesekara finished second with a jump of 2:15m while long jumper Amila Jayasiri leapt 7.15m to finish in 10th place. Javelin thrower Waruna Lakshan finished in 5th place with a best throw of 73.62m.
The only new meet record of the day was set by India’s Indrajeeth Singh when he threw a distance of 19.85m, which is also new national record in Shot Put.
The third leg of Asian Grand Prix will be held 29th Monday in Chanthaburi, Thailand.
