Records took a tumbling on the third day of the 53rd Junior National Athletics Championship held at the Mahinda Rajapakse International in Diyagama Kottawa yesterday.
As much as 12 records were shattered with nine in the track events and three in the field events. Eight of the records were set in the pre-lunch session with four coming in the post lunch session.
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| Fathima Zeenath Imtiaz of Buddhists Ladies College who broke a 31 year old record in action.
-Picture by Ranjith Perera. |
The best effort came from Fathima Zeenath Imtiaz hailing from Buddhist Ladies College Colombo who eclipsed a record that had stood for 31 years.
15 year old Zeenath’s record breaking feat was in the Girl’s Under 16 Shot Putt event where she hurled the Putt Shot to a massive distance of 10.26 metres which erased the existing record of 9.85 metres set by Deepika Rodrigo of Anuradhapura MMV way back in 1979.
Zeenath’s effort was something special as the second best in that event was only 8.81 meters. This was Zeenath’s second gold medal of the day as earlier in the day she won the Javelin throw in the same age group when she threw a distance 30.70 meters.
The first record for the day was set by A.H.M.P. Abeysinghe of A/Ratnayake CC Walala in the Girl’s Under 16 800 metres heats where she finished with a timing of 2.23.01 secs.
Later Abeysinghe broke her own record when she crossed the ribbon with a better time of 2.17.05 secs in the final of the same event erasing the record of 2.23.2 secs set by Hansi Ekanayake of Lyceum International Wattala last year.
G.A.I.S. Dayananda of Ferguson High School Ratnapura was the next in line which was also in the track event. Dayananda achieved the same feat as Abeysinghe when she set a new record of 15.12 secs in the 100m hurdles heat in the morning and then followed it up with a better timing of 14.95secs in the final of the same event in the evening.
Navy’s K.K.K. Seneviratne came off in style in the Boys Under 23 200m semi final with a timing of 21.75 secs which erased the record of 21.71 under the name of Joy Dhanushka Perera which was achieved in 2004.
D.M.D. Janith Krishan of Jayawardenapura Sports Club created a new record in the Under 16 800m when he finished the event with a timing of 2.01.19secs in the final which bettered the record of 2.02.11secs.
This was followed by W.T.K. Fernando of Air Force hurling the Shot Putt to a distance of 13.03 metres in the Under 23 girl’s category shattering the record of 12.33 metres.
The last record to be set in the pre-lunch session was by Lahiru Prasanjith of Taxila Central Horana who ran the Under 18 400m final in 54.17secs eclipsing the record of 55.6 set by P.G. Bultjens of Vidyartha Kandy in 2007.
The post lunch session saw four records being broken with all being in the track events. Keshani Perera of Gateway Rajagiriya set a new record in the Under 18 Girl’s 100m hurdles event while Harshani Wijesinghe of St Joseph’s Balika Kegalle set a new record of 14.53secs in the Girls Under 23 100m hurdles.
In the Boys Under 23 110m hurdles event S,D.U. Asiri of Air Force broke the record with a new timing of 15.09secs and the day’s proceedings ended with another Airmen Charuka Chathuranga setting a new record of 31.25.05seecs in the Boys Under 20 10,000m.
Apart from that D.D. Mohottala of the Air Force too had a successful day when she won two events winning the finals of the Girls Under 20 Triple Jump and Long Jump.
From the three days of competition a staggering 12 records have been broken with one on the first day and three on the second day. This shows there has been a vast improvement in the performances of the athletes.
According to an official the meet was enlightened with the participation of over 300 athletes from the north east and one of the athletes S. Thanuja of Jaffna DAA had the honour of breaking the first record of the meet.
Thanuja created a new record in the Girls Under 20 Pole Vault event when she leapt a distance of 3.00 metres which erase the old record of 2.90. |
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