Two Sri Lankan track and field athletes, Seniru Amarasinghe and Dilan Bogoda completed their journey at the 3rd Youth Olympic Games (YOG) which is held in Buenos Aires, Argentina placed 4th and 9th in their respective events.
Seniru equals personal best in Stage 2
Royalist High jumper, Seniru Amarasinghe was placed fourth in the second stage of the Men’s High Jump managing to clear 2.14m, equaling his personal best. This performance earned him the 4th place in the final placing as well.
China’s Long Chen who was the pre-event favorite clinched the Gold medal, did so with ease as he managed to clear 2.22m in the second stage. Australian Oscar Miers won Silver with Oleh Doroshchuk clinching Bronze in the event.
Read: Royalist Seniru placed 4th while Dilan runs PB at YOG 2018
Men’s High Jump -Final Standing
In the first stage of the event Seniru only managed to clear a height of 2.05m and was placed fourth behind the eventual medalists. The first stage was conducted in cold windy conditions with the temperature at around 15 degrees Celsius which seemed to hamper the performance of the athletes with the eventual Gold medalist China’s Chen only managing to clear 2.13m.
With Sri Lanka’s undisputed king of High Jump Manjula Kumara at the end of his career, it is encouraging to see a youngster in the likes of Seniru showing that the next generation of high jumpers of the Island are ready to take on the international stage.
Dilan one of the top ten quarter milers at YOG 2018
Dilan Bogoda of Sir John Kothalawala College, Kurunegala ended the second stage of the competition placed 7th, clocking 48.81 and was ranked 9th in the final placing in the Men’s 400m. Dilan who competed in the 4th heat in the second stage of the 400m was allocated the challenging 8th lane but delivered a controlled run to be placed 7th in the heat.
Kennedy Luchembe of Zambia won Gold clocking 46.36secs while Luis Antonio of Mexico clinched Silver clocking 46.78secs. Nicholas Ramey of USA won the bronze medal of the competition with a performance of 47.27secs.
In the Stage 01 heat Dilan was placed 4th with a personal best run of 48.52secs behind eventual Bronze medalist Nicholas Ramey of USA and Ilyas Canakci of Turkey who was placed fourth in the final standings. Dilan will no doubt be a valuable addition to the next generation of Sri Lanka’s quarter milers who are looking to regain the Island’s lost Asian dominance in the event.
Sri Lanka’s prime medal hope at the YOG, Steeple chaser Parami Wasanthi Maristella will be competing in the second stage of her competition, which is a 4km cross country run today (15th) at 1900hrs Sri Lankan time.
Parami on course for a Youth Olympic medal
Sri Lanka’s prime hope to win the country’s first Youth Olympic..
Visit www.thepapare.com/athletics to be updated on Sri Lanka’s pursuit of their maiden medal at the Youth Olympic Games.