Yesterday was one great leap for Sri Lankan athletics when Chandrika Rasanayake won the 1st heat of woman 400m by clocking 53.75 sec at Commonwealth games 2014 Glasgow.
She was in one of the slow heats while the one time world champion Montsho of Botswana was in heat 5 and three other Olympians including C.Day(JAM), Wlliams-Mills (JAM), Omotosho (NGR) made it to the semi- final from other heats.
For many years Chandrika was hidden in the depths of Sri Lankan athletics reasons for which are not clear but she continued to remain as a training champion. She missed the 2012 London Olympics qualifying by milli-seconds.
Yesterday she appeared as a different athlete, she came across a strong finisher, more relaxed and enjoying her opportunity at Glasgow.
But in semi-finals she needsto focus on timing. She is scheduled to run in lane 3 and her biggest advantage McPherson, Omotosho in 5th and 6th Lanes respectively. McPherson did 50.54 in Heat 2 and Omotosho did 51.82 sec in heat 3.
In the second semi finals a strong battle can be expected from Miller (BAH), Abugan (NGR) Alexander (SVG) ,C.Day (JAM) also in third semi-final between Montsho (Botswana) and Williams -mills from Jamaica.
Sri Lankans should not expect medals from Chandrika at this event, but expect her to run her personal best giving hope to all training athletes and the administration.
ThePapare.com wishes Chandrika Rasanayake all the very best for today’s semi-final.
