The 58th Army Athletic Championship was successfully concluded on the 31st of March at the Diyagama Mahinda Rajapaksha Stadium. With many talented Sri Lankan athletes showcasing their skills over the course of three days of competition, we were able to witness several national and meet records.
Day 01
Day 1 started off with a new meet record set by P.D.B Herath who won the Women’s 10000m event with a time of 36:00.07 minutes. With a time of 36:47.60 Chamini Herath was placed second while K. Sugathapala was placed 3rd (39:03.21 minutes).
The Men’s 5000m event saw D.S Dissanayaka (14:57.79 Minutes) winning it, while D.S. Gunasekara (14:58.19 minutes) and M.U. Kumara (14:58.27 minutes) were placed 2nd and 3rd respectively.
Nilani Ratnayaka was able to win the Women’s 1500m race with a timing of 4:20.51 minutes while S. Lakshani was placed 2nd and M. Nidharshani was placed 3rd.
R. Rathushan was placed first in the Men’s Javelin Throw event by recording a throw of 69.82m, while a 48.44m throw from A.S. Bandara helped him win the Hammer Throw event.
In Women’s Pole Vault A.S. Perera was placed first by recording a jump of 3 meters while A.N. Dilrukshi (39.51m) was able to win the Women’s Discus Throw event.
Day 02
Day 2 started off with a new meet record as Aruna Darshana won the Men’s 200m event with a timing of 20.64s seconds. This is the best timing recorded by a Sri Lankan on Sri Lankan soil, a record previously held by Vinoj Suranjaya (20.68 seconds).
V.K. Madarika was able to win the 10000m walk race event by setting a new National Record with a time of 49:25.97 Minutes. Along with her, S.L Fernando was also able to set a new National Record in the Men’s walking event by finishing the race in 45:12.22 minutes.
Eranga Janith went onto to set a new National Record in the Men’s Pole Vault by registering a height of 5.16m which helped him overtake the previous record holder K. Puvitharan.
National athlete Dilshi Kumarasinghe, who has not been seen on the athletics field for a long time, marked her comeback by finishing the Women’s 800m event with a time of 2.04.89 seconds. It was also notable that it was a performance that exceeded the Meet Record of that event.
Nilani Ratnayake broke the National Record in her pet event, the Women’s 3000m Steeplechase with a time of 9:55.20 minutes.
Day 03
On the 3rd day of the championship Shreshan Dananjaya managed to set a new National Record with a jump of 16.71m in the Triple Jump event beating the previous record was set by himself. In the Women’s Triple Jump event Randi Cooray was able to win the event by setting a new Meet Record of 13.51m.
At the meantime Nilani Rathnayaka recorded another win in the meet as she won the women’s 5000m event by setting a new National Record of 16:03.16 minutes.
The Women’s 400m event saw another Meet Record being broken as Nadeesha Ramanayaka was able to win the event with a timing of 53.38 seconds.
The men’s leg of the 100m, the fastest event of the meet, saw Chamod Yodhasinghe win the event with a timing of 10.44 seconds setting a new Meet Record. Meanwhile Safia Yamic was able to win the Women’s 100m event with a timing of 12.04 seconds.
K. Sanmugeswaran registered a win in the Men’s 10000m event by clocking a time of 30:55.43 minutes. U. Kumara was able to win the Men’s High Jump event with a jump of 2.15m.
Nadika Syetharage recorded a win in the Women’s Javelin event with a performance of 55.98m.
