It was a golden day for Sri Lanka as Airwomen Chandrika Rasnayake was the hero of the day as she clinched both the 200m and 400m gold medals while soldier Mohamad Rajaskhan won the men’s 200m gold medal to add three gold medals in the day at the Thailand open Athletics championship held at Thammasat University Sports Complex yesterday.
Another soldier from the same unit as Rajaskhan (SLEME) Mohamed Saleemdeen finished second for the silver medal in the men’s 400m final. This is the first international tour for Saleemdeen.
Sri Lankan now has four gold medals two Silver medals and one bronze medal in the tally.
Rasnayake clocked 24:03 seconds in the 200m to win easily while clocked an impressive 53.36 seconds in the 400m to win a double gold in the day.
Both Rasnayake and Rajaskhan train under the same coaching pair Sunil and Badra Gunawardane and both of them are in the same age of 27 while Saleemdeen at 21 is the junior member of the team.
It was a straight forward win for Rasnayake who was left without any challenge. She clocked 24.03 seconds with ease. The Thailand athletes Kwanrothai Pakdee (24.62) and Upawan Thipat (25.07) finished second and third respectively.
“Happy about winning the medal but expected more competition when I come here, it is hard to run for a good timing when you don’t have stiff challenge,” said Rasnayake after the race.
Rasnayake, 27 who already has an Asian Championship medal in her pet event the 400m is one of the key athletes Sri Lanka has for the forthcoming Asian and Commonwealth Games.
“That (Asian Games) is my main target. I was down with dengue after last year’s Asian Grand Prix and came back strongly to clock a sub 54 seconds at the Malaysian Open later that year and I hope I can improve in future and go beyond my personal best this year,” predicted Rasnayake about her personal best of (52.36 sec) set six years ago. On the other hand, her male counterpart of the event Mohamed Rajaskhan did not have an easy race as he had tough competition from others. Nevertheless Rajaskhan was able to win the gold medal to seal both gold medals for Sri Lanka with his seasonal best of 22.35 seconds. Yen Yao Lo of Chinese Taipei (21.46 sec) and Benjaorng Chairak of Thailand (21.49 seconds) finished second and third respectively.
This is Rajaskhan first international gold medal after winning two silver medals in last year’s Thailand Open and Macau Open competitions.
“Happy about winning the gold medal here in my third international meet,” said the shy athlete who couldn’t speak Sinhala properly.
Rajaskhan who hails from Al Hamra College, Oluvil, Ampara, wasn’t a regular track and field athlete when he was schooling.
“I played football in school and performed in athletics after school at district and circuit level,” said Rajaskhan.
He clocked his personal best of 21.25 seconds in 2012 and retained the national title for few years and is now the only national 200m specialist.
WKLA Nimali who was scheduled to compete yesterday as her heat in the 800 metres that was decided to hold it direct as a final for today.
The men’s 4x100m relay is also scheduled to take place in the afternoon while the two gold medal hopes in the 400m will also be worked off today.
