Ayesha Maduwanthi of Uva Province has established a new Sri Lanka record in the hammer throw event on the second day of the 40th National Sports Festival being worked off at the North Central Province Sports Complex Anuradhapura yesterday.
Maduwanthi (23) a product of Moneragala MMV set the record with a throw of 42.74 metres, which was earlier owned by SM Amarasinghe of Sabaragamuwa (42.14m).
The hammer throw event was introduced to the national sports festival for the first time this year. Air Force athlete Maduwanthi won the recently held national championship with a throw of 39.50 metres, and it was enough for her to qualify for the recently held Asian Games in South Korea.
Maduwanthi speaking to Ceylon Today expressed great satisfaction about her performance. She said she set the record after a short training period. “Earlier I was a javelin thrower, but now I focus only on the hammer throw event which has given me an opportunity to go forward.”
Charith Kapukotuwa of North Western Province grabbed three gold medals in the discus, hammer throw and shot put events, while NCD Priyadarshani won two gold medals for Western Province by winning the long jump and triple jump.
Southern Province 800 metres women’s athlete WKLA Nimali who owned the National Sports Festival record, won her pet event for the second successive year by clocking 2.11.54 secs. Nimali was happy about the win but disappointed, as she could not put up a much better performance than at the last NSF games in Nawalapitiya, where she established a new meet record.
The soccer final between Southern and Northern was abandoned due to heavy rain and lightning.
Meanwhile, Western Province took a commanding lead with 72 gold, 51 silvers and 53 bronze medals, while Central Province is in second place with 34 gold, 38 silvers and 37 bronze models.
