Shehan Ambepitiya suffered a shock blow at the hands of Mohamed Safran who beat him in the 100m final at the National selection trails concluded at the Sugathadasa stadium in Colombo yesterday.
Safran clocked 10.76 in the semi finals while Ambepitiya timed 10.77 indicating a close contest in the final.
Ambepitiya edged head of Safran for the first 80 metres but yet he couldn’t hold on as Safran passed him at the finishing line taking the title.
In the final Safran clocked 10.81 seconds while Ambeptiiya managed 10.86. R.A. Hasaranga finished third with 10.92 seconds.
Jani Chathurangi won the women’s 100m with 12.35 seconds.
Nimali Madushika won the girls 400m with an impressive 57.20 seconds which is a silverlining for a medal at the youth Asian Games as she beat the IAAF world youth qualifying standard time which is 57.60 seconds.
Ananda College athlete A.I.Kariyawasam ran 11.06 seconds in the boys 100m which also beat the qualifying time for the world youth championship.
Chandrika Subashini ran 54.43 seconds to win the women’s 400m where 800m winner W.A.Nimali won the second place with 55.77 seconds. Anjana Gunarathne won the men’s 400m with 47.23 seconds while K.K.Seneviratne finished second and C.D.Aloka finished third. However C.M. Jayasekara who finished sixth posted the best timing when he ran 47.07 seconds in the semifinals.
Niluka Rajasekara who missed the World Crosscountry was back on track where she won the 5000m women’s event with ease.
Chaminda Wijekoon who won his 1500m heat easily didn’t feature in the finals while a few other senior athletes did not participate in the trials.
Two of five officials of the selection committee W.Premathilake and Sumith Dalpadadu believe they have to consider selecting the first five athletes of both the women’s (Jani Chathurangi Silva, N.N. Waragoda, P.B Padmanjalee, D.L Fernando and Y.N.Abeywickrama ) and men’s 100m (M.S.M. Safran, Shehan Ambepitiya, B.R.A. Hasaranga , A.C.Nadeeshan and R.G. Chamara) for the Asian Grand Prix relay team. They will also consider the status of Sujani Buddika who did not participate in the 100m though she won the 200m.
