Balanchandran Ananth of Hartly College of Point Pedro and Prasadi Lakshani of Holy Cross College Gampaha emerged best male and female athletes respectively in the 46th Sir John Tarbat Junior Athletics Championship concluded at Anuradhapura yesterday.
Ananth sealed the championship for his performance of 45.91m in the under 15 boys discuss throw.
Lakshani sealed the championship for her record breaking performance of 5:32 m in the long jump where she also emerged the best long jumper.
Sandumini Chaviprabashi Bandara of St. Joseph’s BV Kegalle emerged the best 400m runner of the championship.
St. Benedict’s College Kotahena and St. Joseph’s BV Kegalle emerged the overall boys and girls champions with 78 and 64 points respectively.
St. Mary’s College –Chilaw finished second with 63 points while Royal College Colombo finished third with 56 points in the boys category.
Maris Stella College Negambo who has been winning the championship for six years couldn’t even finish in top three positions this year.
Meanwhile, Ladies’ college Colombo finished second with 39 points while Lyceum International School –Wattala finished third with 37 points in the girls category.
Drama in the 100m
Sadeepa Henderson of Gateway College Colombo and Shemal Milinda of St. Mary’s College Chilaw sealed the eventful under-14 girls and boys 100m with both events ending up in drama as the beaten athletes refused to accept the defeat.
Henderson, who was beaten by Himasha Fernando of Lyceum College Wattala in the 200m on the finishing line, took the perfect revenge in the 100m taking short sprint Gold medal where this time it was Henderson who came top in the tape finish even though both athletes clocked identical 13.8 seconds just as 200m.
But, a heated situation arose with the beaten athlete and the supporters refusing to accept the defeat near the finishing line even though video evidence suggested the judges’ decision was correct.
The situation went a bit out of control with the next race where Milinda of St. Mary’s beat St. Benedict’s college’s Uditha Dilshan in the boys under 14 100m.
The Bens supporters refused to accept the decision which looked close on the finishing line and a police officer had to intervene to calm the situation, while a Ben’s supporter almost tried to attack one of the senior technical official’s.
Kavindu Bandara of Asian Grammar School was the fastest male athlete of the championship with 11.6 seconds while Piumini Weerasooriya of St. Joseph’s BV clocked 13.5 seconds to emerge fastest female athlete. A total of four new meet records were set in the day.
