Five youth athletes performed exceptionally well to achieve IAAF World Youth Championship qualifying standards at the National Youth (Under 18) qualifying trials concluded at Diyagama Stadium yesterday.
Dhammika Ranathunga (High Jump), Chamal Kumarasiri (Triple Jump), Darshana Rajapaksha (400m hurdle), Uditha Chandrasena (400m hurdle) and Yamani Dulanjali (400m) were the athletes who performed better than the given qualifying standards.
The boys 400m hurdle produced two athletes, Rajapaksha and Chandrasena, who performed better than the World Youth qualifying standard (55.00 seconds). Rajapaksha from St. Sylvester’s College Kandy clocked an impressive 53.81 (IAAF Points 948) seconds to win the event, while Chandrasena from Maris Stella College Negombo finished second with a 53.85 (IAAF Points 947) seconds performance.
Ambagamuwa Central College athlete Yamani Dulanjali was the only athlete to achieve qualifying standard (57.20 seconds) as she clocked 57.04 (IAAF Points 939) seconds in the girls 400m. Incidentally, Dulanjali hails from the college which produced the best 400m runner of the country in the past, Sugath Thilakaratne, and is also coached by his coach Anura Bandara.
Dhammika Ranathunga from Kularathna MMV, Godagamuwa bettered his personal best with 2:10m (IAAF points 1002) jump, while Kumarasiri of D.S.Senanayake National College jumped 15:18m (IAAF points 972) in the triple jump also bettering his personal best. Both athletes had already achieved world qualifying standard (2:10m and 14.80 respectively) last year at the All Island school games when they came for the trials this year.
Even though none of the 400m boys runners achieved the qualifying standard of 49.45 seconds for the World Youth, three of them clocked below 50 seconds in the finals, indicating possible 4x400m relay medals at the Asian youth championship. The concluded trials were conducted to select a team for the
forthcoming first Asian Youth Athletics Championship to be held in May at Qatar, while athletes will also get the opportunity to achieve qualifying standards for the World Youth Championship to be held in Colombia later this year.
Sri Lanka has received a quota for only three athletes from the Asian Youth Athletics Championship organizers, and it will be interesting to see whether the country will afford those athletes who qualified to go for the Asian event, giving much needed international exposure ahead of the World Championship, or will be pruned down to a three member team.
