King Kalinga sets new 400m meet record
Fresh from the Asian Games, Kalinga Kumarage beat his relay team mate Aruna Darshana with a record timing
Sprinter Kalinga Kumarage clocked the fourth fastest time in Sri Lankan 400m history as he blazed his way to win the title in a new championship record of 45.07secs on day two of the 101st National Senior Athletics Championships at the Sugathadasa Stadium yesterday. It is also the best-ever time to run in Sri Lanka by an athlete, local or foreign. Al Shammari Fawzi of Kuwait held the record for 21 years, having clocked 45.21secs at the 2002 Asian Championships in Colombo.
Kumarage’s effort eclipsed the record set by Olympian Rohan Pradeep Kumara in 2000 where he beat his closest rival and the fastest 400m runner in Sri Lankan history Sugath Thilakaratne with a blistering 45.25secs.
Thilakaratne is the only Sri Lankan to have run sub 45 seconds in Sri Lankan history and Kumarage’s performance on Saturday gives an indication that the 30-year-old Kumarage could break the barrier at the Asian Games in September.
Kumarage fresh from his record breaking contribution to win the 4x400m relay at the Asian Championships had a perfect race with Anura Darshana, his closest rival following him closely in the sixth lane. Darshana finished second with a personal best of 45.45secs. RN Rajakaruna finished third with a time of 46.32secs.
At a recent meet in India, Kumarage clocked 45.64secs.
At the Asian Championships in 1998 in Fukuoka, Thilakaratne set a new championships record of 44.61sec and few months later he clocked 44.99secs to win Asian Games gold in Bangkok. In May 1999, Thilakaratne recorded his third sub 45secs, 44.84 at the Doha IAAF Grand Prix. The newly crowned 400m women’s Asian champion Nadeesha Ramanayake was a no show yesterday and that saw two Indian athletes Soniya Baishya (53.46secs) and Jisna Mathew (53.75secs) winning the first and second place. MHM Uthara clocked a personal best of 54.13secs to finish third.
Meanwhile in the men’s 110m hurdles, Janidu Lakvijaya renewed his Sri Lanka record with a time of 13.77secs. The previous best was 13.82secs established in March this year. Asian Championship bronze medalist Dilhani Lekamge threw a distance of 58.56m in clinch first place in women’s Javelin Throw. Former Asian Championship bronze medalist Vidusha Lakshani won her first national title after a 4 year absence with a wind aided 13.43m.
In the men’s 100m dash YCM Yodasinghe finished first returning a time of 10.40secs while Rumeshika Ratnayake with a time of 11.89secs became the women’s 100m champion.