Gayanthika Abeyratne and Aruna Darshana medal in Japan

38th Shizuoka International Athletics 2023

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Gayantika Abeyratne and Aruna Darshana participated in the 38th Shizuoka International Athletics 2023 championship today (3rd), which is categorized as a Bronze event in the World Athletics Association Continental Tour.

Abeyratne, who participated in the Women’s 800m event in this championship held in Japan, finished the race with a time of 2:04.35 minutes, winning 1st place.

Abeyratne was in group A of the race, which was made up of 3 groups, with placings decided according to the fastest times across the 3 groups (this is what is called a timed race final).

Aruna Darshana participated in the Men’s 400m and he finished his event with a time of 45.59 seconds, winning third place in the race (also a timed race final); this also happened to be Darshana’s personal best timing in the event.

As the qualification period for the 2023 World Athletics Championships is still in effect, the bonus points obtained by participating in the Continental Tour are very important for the athletes to qualify for the World Athletics Championships.

In addition to Abyeratne and Darshana, Nilani Ratnayake is also set to compete in the 3000m steeplechase event at the same meet.