By Reemus Fernando
Wickramabahu National School, Gampola athletes Nirmali Wickramasinghe and Dulanjana Pradeepani reached qualifying standards to represent Sri Lanka at the Asian Youth Athletics Championships as they won the first and second places of the 1500 metres in a tape finish at the selection trial held at Diyagama on Wednesday.
Nirmali, who missed the qualifying time by milliseconds in the 800 metres on Tuesday came up with a spirited effort to stop the clock under the locally set qualifying mark yesterday.
Dulanjana too gave her best to finish under the qualifying standard.
The athletes trained by Buddhika Nuwan clocked 4:47.89 seconds to finish head to head. The qualifying mark set for the discipline was 4:48.00 seconds.
The duo were the only athletes to reach standards on day two as sprinters struggled to deliver under sweltering heat.
A total of six athletes reached qualifying standards
Sri Lanka Athletics conducted the trial to pick Sri Lanka’s team for the Asian Youth Championships which will be held in Uzbekistan in April.
Incidentally, Wickramasinghe will be representing Sri Lanka for the second consecutive time at this meet. In 2022, she won the silver medal of the 800 metres at the event held in Kuwait.
However she is not the only athlete making it to the Asian Youth Championships for the second consecutive time. D.S. Senanayake College, Colombo athlete Lesandu Arthavidu, who won a medal at the last edition of the Asian event cleared the two metres mark to reach qualifying standards in the boys’ high jump event on Tuesday.
Nilupul Pehesara Thenuja of Vijitha Central, Dickwella also made the cut as he too cleared the same height in the high jump.
On day one, Ambagamuwa Central hurdler Ayomal Akalanka produced a notable 52.87 seconds feat in the 400 metres hurdles.
The other athlete to reach qualifying standards on day one was Malindarathna Silva of Maris Stella College, Negombo. He cleared 4.65 metres to match the standards in the pole vault.
He is the first pole vaulter from Sri Lanka to qualify for a Youth Asian Championship.