The Junior National Athletic Championship was worked off at Diyagama Mahinda Rajapaksa Stadium from the 12th to the 15th of May.

During the four days of competition, three athletes qualified for the IAAF World Juniors while a number of new meet and national records were established.

Greshan Dananjaya, who was also judged the best athlete (male) in the overall championship, booked the first ticket to World Junior Championships to be held in Poland. Greshan, a student of Joseph Vaz College Wennapuwa, participated in the Under 20 Triple Jump where he recorded a distance of 15.78 which is a new meet record.

The previous record of 15.25m was set two decades ago by Milan Fernando from Maristella College.

He also set another meet record in the under 20 Long Jump event with a distance of 7.41m. He renewed the record of 7.33m set by AJT Benedilus Fernando way back in 1988.

Speaking to ThePapare.com Greshan said,

“I never expected to set a new record in the triple jump event. Honestly, I did not even practice properly for it. All my hopes were in the long jump event. But luckily I was able to set new records in both the events I participated in and even qualify for the World Junior Championships”.

Akila Ravishanka, hailing from Seevali Central College Ratnapura, was the second amongst the trio to qualify for the IAAF World Junior Championships. Akila clocked a timing of 14.19sec in the Under 20 110m hurdles with which he qualified for the global stage along with setting a new meet record.   The previous record was held by Supun Viraj Randeniya which was clocked at 14.22sec.   Among his other significant victories, is the silver medal he won in the same event at the Asian Championship which was held in China in 2015.

 

Speaking to ThePapare.com on the plans for the IAAF World Junior Championships he said,


“I am happy that I was able to secure my place in the championship and my only hope is to practice harder and bring back another medal to my motherland”.

Uditha Weerasinghe is the 3rd and final athlete to book his place at the IAAF World Junior Championships. The qualifying standard for the championship was set at 53.20sec and Uditha comfortably overcame the challenge, clocking 52.22sec in the Under 20 400m hurdle event, setting a new meet record.

The previous record was held by Sohan Madhushanka from De Mazond College Kandana which was a 53.72sec mark set three years back in 2013.

Speaking to ThePapare.com Weerasinghe said,


“I thank my coach Philip Ranjith for all the support he has given me and for his guidance which led me to qualify for the World Junior Championships. I hope that I could perform even better in both Junior Asian Championships and the Junior World Championships to bring back glory to Sri Lanka”.

Harshani Dharmaratne altered the national record books in the pole vault event. Schooling at one of Sri Lanka`s finest sporting schools; Walala A. Rathanayake Central College she recorded a height of 3.34m. The previous national record was held by Anoma Karunawanshe which was 3.33m.

Speaking to ThePapare.com Harshani was thankful for all the guidance and support from her school and her coaches. She hopes that she could perform better to qualify for international championships.

Shenal Ratwatte from Trinity College Kandy too entered the record books as he set a new meet record in the Under 20, 200m event. The previous record of 22.04sec was held by U. G Wickramasinghe from St. Anthony’s College Kandy. The mark was equaled by SAG medalist Vinoj Sanajaya while Ratwatte clocked a timing of 21.73 and replaced his name in the book of records.

The other two meet records were set by KSL Wickramasinghe and Dilshani Kumarasinghe from Sri Lanka Army and Walala A. Rathanayake Central College respectively.

Wickramasinghe updated the record books for the Under 23, 200m event by registering a timing of 21.60sec. The previous record of 21.65sec was held by RJ Jayasekara from Sri Lanka Navy set in the year 2014.

Kumarasinghe clocked 2.13.79min in the under 18 800m event as she replaced the record of KM Nishanthi Dilhani of 2.14.39min set in 2014.