Rumesha shatters Dharsha’s record….

Sprinter Rumesha Kumari Rathnayake blazed the track to go beyond Damayanthi Dharsha’s 200m meet record as she clocked 24.27 seconds in the heat for girls under 20 at the 94th Junior National Athletics championship held at Diyagama yesterday.
The sprinter from St. Joseph’s BV Kegalle clocked this incredible time competing from the outer lane (lane number 9) in the first heat and she went beyond Asian Games record holder Damayanthi Darsha’s record (24.4 seconds) which was set in 1993.
Rathnayake who trained under renowned coach AD Nandawathi clocked 11.8 seconds in the 100m at the national trials exactly two weeks ago is already in the Sri Lanka squad for the Asian Championship, and she is set to leave the country in four days time to Wuhan, China.
Rathnayake wasn’t initially included in the list for the Asian Championship even after her incredible feet two weeks ago. Her coach appealed to minister Navin Dissanayake, and also to Prime Minister Ranil Wickremesinghe regarding the matter before she was included in the team.
Meanwhile, triple jumper Vidusha Lakshani too kept tumbling records as she set a new meet record in the triple jump with a performance of 13.12m.
Lakshani from Newstead Girl’s College, Negombo, who trains under veteran jumping coach Philip Ranjith, rewrote her own Under-20 record exactly two weeks after setting the Sri Lanka record for the event (13.22m) at the same venue. Lakshani too is in the Sri Lanka squad for the Asian Championship, and is one of the three school athletes.
AS Dulanjali of Air Force jumped 12.76m in the under 23 girl’s triple jump to set a new meet record, while Pramodh Madhubash of Maris Stella College, Negombo, jumped 6.83m in the boys under 16 long jump to also set a new meet record. A total of 13 records have been broken in the two days so far (9 on day one and 4 on day two).
Pole-vaulter Ishara Sandaruwan jumped a personal best of 4:70m in the boys under 23 event to set a new meet record yesterday, getting closer to the Sri Lanka record of 4:85m set by Ruwan Pradeep Perera in 1999.
Meanwhile, the boys Under-18 pole vault event produced two athletes who bettered the previous record with a jump of 4:20m – K. Napthalijoyson of Arunodya College Jaffna and S. Dilaksan of Mahajana College Jaffna. Dilaksan who finished second faced an accident during the event. Dilaksan landed on the ground instead of the mattress after his jump and was hospitalized immediately. However, sources said Dilaksan is out of dange