A team of 12 Sri Lankan athletes are set to compete in the 3 legged Asian Grand Prix over the month of April. First two legs of the Asian Grand Prix will be held in China on the 24th & 27th of the month while the third and the final leg will be conducted in Chinese Taipei on the 30th of April.
Names of 7 Male and 5 female athletes have been forwarded to the Ministry of Sport for approval by the AASL who are set to take part in the Asian Grand Prix series. This competition will be a great stepping stone in the run up to the 22nd Asian Championship, the flagship bi annual tournament organized by the Asian Athletics Association from 01st to 04th June in India.
Sumedha Ranasinghe
The two premier javelin throwers of the country Sumedha Ranasinghe and Waruna Dayarathne will be looking to work towards achieving their peak during the three legged event. Sumedha created history becoming the first male javelin thrower of the country to qualify for the Olympics when he established a new National record of 83.04m at the South Asian games trials. However Sumedha had a disappointing outing at the Rio Olympics only managing a distance of 71.93m in the qualifying rounds.
.
Waruna Dayarathne
Waruna Dayarathne, Ranasinghe’s training partner has been in great form in the domestic competitions last year. Dayarathne created a new meet record at the 42nd National games with a throw of 78.52m and will be eager to provide stiff competition and possibly overthrow the Olympians best effort come the Asian Championships.
.
Nimali Liyanarachi and Gayanthika Abayrathne
Similar to the Men’s Javelin throw Sri Lanka will be fielding two athletes in the women’s 800m where Nimali Liyanarachi and Gayanthika Abeyrathne will be competing for top honors. Nimali shattered a 24 year old national record in the Women’s 800m with a time of 2:03.5secs at the 42nd National games where Gayanthika also surpassed the previous record coming in second. Both athletes will vie to better the times that they achieved on a grass track in Jaffna when they compete at the Grand Prix. Nimali will also feature in the women’s 400m apart from the 800m.
Tharika Fernando
Tharika Fernando who renewed her own national record at the 42nd National games with a throw of 15.25m becoming the first Sri Lankan woman to surpass the 15m in the Shot put event has been included in the squad.
.
.
Manjula Kumara
Olympian Manjula Kumara who narrowly missed out on qualifying for Rio Olympics will also be part of the squad that will participate in the Grand Prix. Kumara the National record holder in the high jump event with a jump of 2.27m which earned him gold at the 2005 Asian Championship will use the series to achieve his peak and excel at the Asian Championships. At last year’s Asian Games Kumara clinched gold with a jump of 2.17m.
Sri Lankan Team for the Asian Grand Prix 2017
Men : Sumedha Ranasinghe, Waruna Dayarathne (Javeline Throw), Manjula Kumara(High Jump), Sanjaya Jayasinghe (Triple Jump), Himasha Esha(100m), Ajith Premakumara(400m) Indunil Herath(800m)
Women : Tharika Fernando (Shot-put), Tharanga Vinodini (High jump), Rumeshika Rathnayake (100m), Gayanthika Abeyrathne (800m), Nimali Liyanarachi (400m, 800m)
