The made –up men’s 4×400 relay quartet comprising Hasith Nirmal (11m hurdler), PH Chamal (1500m), Indunil Herath (800m) and Jagath Gunathilake (400m hurdles) gave a rousing end to the athletics competition.
The 3rd Lusofonia Games when they clocked an impressive 3 mins 19.02 seconds to win Sri Lanka’s fourth gold on Saturday night at the GMC Complex Bambolim, Goa, India.
Nirmal, running a 400m race for the first time in his life did well to hand the baton to Herath on third place but Herath made a remarkable recovery as he powered his way to take the lead before handing the baton to Chamal. Chamal made no mistake as he extended the lead before Gunathilaka put the finishing touches in style to send Sri Lankan into jubilation.
“I have never run a 400m race in my life, but I had to do it for the team. It was a big challenge and I did extremely well,” Nirmal said after the race.
Sri Lanka had not sent a specialist 400m relay squad for the Games but decided to field a team at the last minute with a made-up team.
Meanwhile, Sri Lanka’s women’s 400m relay quarter comprising Upamali Rathnakumari , Danushka Fernando , Niluka Wickramasinghe and Ishara Madushani clinched the silver medal.
On Saturday, Sri Lanka also added three more bronze medals through 400m hurdlers, Jagath Gunathilake (men), Niluka Wickramasinghe (women) and Dhanushka Fernando. Fernando grabbed silver in the men’s 200m dash.
Overall Sri Lanka won four gold, five silver and four bronze medals in athletics.
