Sarangi Silva of the Army was the only athlete to set a new Sri Lanka record in the women’s long jump event on the final day at the selection trial meet that concluded at the Sugathadasa Stadium yesterday.
She set the record in the morning with a leap of 6.65 metres to better her previous leap of 6.48 metres done in 2021.
The rest of the events did not produce any records although some impressive performances were witnessed but not good enough to be selected to the national squad.
However, one noteworthy performance that deserved mention was that of Hirusha Abeysekara of Track Masters SC who shattered the Sri Lanka junior record and sealed his berth at the World Athletics Junior Championship when he won the long jump with a leap of 7.67m.
Hailing from St. Peter’s College, Abeysekera who trains under Sunil and Badra Gunawardena, missed out from making it to the Sri Lanka junior team last year by the slightest of margins and the youngster made sure there was no chance this time of losing out achieving direct qualification with a personal best leap.
Hurdler Kaveesha Bandara from Royal College was the other athlete to qualify for the World Junior Championship. He clocked 14.02 seconds in the final of the junior men’s 110m hurdles which was worked out as a straight final.
Rumeshika Ratnayake who made a comeback with a second-place finish in the 100m race, won the 200m with a time of 24.40 seconds, as she had less competition with the event being worked off as a straight final due to lack of participation.
Nilani Ratnayake clocked a seasonal best 9 minutes 47.47 seconds to win the 3000m steeplechase, which was her second-best time over the event and less than a second below the current Sri Lanka record.