Sri Lanka concluded the Asian Junior Athletic Championship which was held in Gifu, Japan placed fifth in the overall medal standings with 9 medals including 3 Gold, 4 Silver and 2 Bronze medals.
This is the best return for the country from an Asian Junior Championship surpassing the previous best of 7 medals from the 2012 edition which was hosted in Colombo.
Men’s 4X400m unchallenged
Sri Lanka concluded the Championship on a massive high, winning Gold in the Men’s 4X400m which was the final event of the 4-day competition in Japan. Sri Lanka were firm favorites to win Gold with Aruna Darshana the Gold medalist and the meet record holder in the Men’s 400m and Pasindu Kodikara the Silver medalist in the same event making up a very strong quartet alongside Pabasra Niku and young Ravishka Indrajith. All four athletes have already qualified for the IAAF World Youth Championship which is scheduled to be held in July.
Pabasara Niku was handed the responsibility of running the first lap of the relay where he managed to transfer the baton to Pasindu Kodikara with Sri Lanka in third place behind Malaysia and Japan. 400m Silver medalist Pasindu wasted no time as he got on to a magnificent start, surpassing the Japanese and the Malaysian runners who were in front of him without much trouble and got Sri Lanka an all-important lead transferring the baton to young Ravishka Indrajith who ran a superb lap to maintain the lead he was handed. Ravishka transferred the baton to Aruna Darshana, the headline act for Sri Lanka at the Asian Junior Championship. Aruna, who had the luxury of a head start, resembled a runner going through a warm up run as he managed to anchor Sri Lanka to their third Gold in the competition, recording a time of 3:08.70secs ahead of Thailand and Malaysia who won Silver and Bronze respectively.
Bronze for Sri Lanka Women’s 400m relay team
The Sri Lankan ladies were placed 3rd in the 4X400m relay with a time of 3:45.16 behind Japan and India who won the Gold and Silver medal respectively. Romeshi Attidiya ran the first lap for Sri Lanka with Japan, India and Thailand runners getting ahead of her in the first lap. Young Sachini Divyanjalee then made sure that the team was still in the fight as she managed to close in on the lead as she transferred the baton to Amasha De Silva who was running the penultimate lap of the race. She did very well in her run before Dilishi Kumarasinghe anchored Sri Lanka to Bronze behind a strong Japanese and Indian team.
Earlier in the day Amasha De Silva won her second Silver medal of the Championship, clocking 24.47secs in the 200m while Tao Yanan of China won Gold medal clocking 24.01secs to take Gold. It was a terrific run from Amasha to win Silver running in the 9th lane as she managed to beat the Indian Olympian Jisna Mathew who was placed third a fraction behind Amasha clocking 24.48 secs.
It was a terrific performance by the young Sri Lankan contingent who managed to achieve the best return from an Asian Junior Athletic Championship despite not having adequate rest time having landed in Japan just a day prior to the competition. They did not have an opportunity to train at the venues prior to the event either. Added to the misery, there was reportedly no masseuse on tour with the team and a passionate past Sri Lankan athlete who is now domiciled in Japan had to make arrangements with the help of a few Sri Lankans to get the services of a Japanese masseuse for the team. It was a clear show of grit by the Sri Lankan juniors, who unlike their opponents, did not have the luxury of a proper training surface up until May as the Sugathadasa Stadium was only ready for the South Asian Junior Athletic Championship 2018 then.
The youngsters, despite the shortcomings they have had to face have showcased to not only the country but to the entire world what they are capable of. It is now up to the responsible authorities to make sure that these talented athletes are persevered and nurtured so we may yet again challenge the world in track and field.
