Athletics

Gayantika, Dilhani and Aruna to the World Athletics Championships

Published

3 years ago

August 6, 2023

Editor

World Athletics Championships 2023

Sri Lanka Athletics announced that Gayanthika Aberathna (1500m), Dilhani Lekamge and Aruna Darshana (400m) have qualified for the individual events at World Athletics Championships.

It is the first time a Sri Lanka woman athlete participating in 1500m at WC and the second athlete after Chaminda Wijekoon in 2011. It is Gayanthika’s second WC appearance and only Susanthika Jayasinghe, Damayanthi Dharsha and Sriyani Kulawansha have more than one WC appearance among women athletes in Sri Lanka. Now Gayanthika is in the top 56 of the world.

Dilhani Lekamge joins the books as the second women thrower and overall third thrower to participate in WC. Nadeeka Lakmali was the first thrower to compete at WC not only that, she qualified for the final event in 2013. Waruna Lakshan is the only male thrower who represented SL at WC. Now Dilhani is in the top 36 in the world.

Aruna Dharshana who was initially in 53rd position has been upgraded to the top 48 after re-rank and qualified to participate 400m individual event along with 4*400m. It is after the 2005 WC Sri Lankan male 400m athlete qualified for WC. Last was ace athlete Prasanna Amarasekara.

Sri Lanka Athletics forecasted and analysed our athletes’ performance and had pre-entered them earlier having noticed the opportunity of qualifying for the WC. World Athletics officially confirmed the list of athletes today early morning with SL Athletics.

Team Sri Lanka for Budapest WC is the second largest team ever Sri Lanka produced for WC now with eight athletes.

ගයන්තිකා, දිල්හානි සහ අරුණ ලෝක මලල ක්‍රීඩා ශූරතාවලියට

ගයන්තිකා අබේරත්න (මීටර් 1500), දිල්හානි ලේකම්ගේ සහ අරුණ දර්ශන (මීටර් 400) ලෝක මලල ක්‍රීඩා ශූරතාවලියේ කේවල ඉසව් සඳහා සුදුසුකම් ලබා ඇති බව ශ්‍රී ලංකා මලල ක්‍රීඩා සංගමය ප්‍රකාශ කර ඇත.

එය ශ්‍රී ලංකා ක්‍රීඩිකාවක් මීටර් 1500 ඉසව්වට සහභාගි වන පළමු අවස්ථාව වන අතර 2011 වසරේ චමින්ද විජේකෝන්ගෙන් පසු දෙවැනි ක්‍රීඩිකාව ද වේ. එය ගයන්තිකාගේ දෙවැනි ලෝක කුසලාන තරගමාලාව වන අතර ශ්‍රී ලංකාවේ ක්‍රීඩිකාවන් අතරින් එක් වරකට වඩා ලෝක කුසලාන තරගමාලාවට සහභාගි වී ඇත්තේ සුසන්තිකා ජයසිංහ, දමයන්ති දර්ශා සහ ශ්‍රියානි කුලවංශ පමණි. මේ වනවිට ගයන්තිකා ඉන්නේ ලෝකයේ හොඳම 56 දෙනා අතර වීමද විශේෂත්වයකි.

WC තරඟාවලියට සහභාගී වන දෙවන කාන්තා විසිකිරීම් ක්‍රීඩිකාව සහ සමස්ත තෙවන විසිකිරීමේ ක්‍රීඩිකාව ලෙස දිල්හානි ලේකම්ගේ පොතට එක්වෙයි. නදීකා ලක්මාලි WC තරඟාවලියට තරඟ කළ පළමු විසිකිරීමේ ක්‍රීඩිකාව වූවා පමණක් නොව, ඇය 2013 වසරේ අවසන් තරඟයට සුදුසුකම් ලැබුවාය. WC තරඟාවලියේදී ශ්‍රී ලංකාව නියෝජනය කළ එකම පිරිමි විසිකරන්නා වරුණ ලක්ෂාන්ය. මේ වනවිට දිල්හානි ඉන්නේ ලෝකයේ හොඳම 36 දෙනා අතර වේ.

මුලින් 53 වැනි ස්ථානයේ සිටි අරුණ දර්ශන නැවත ශ්‍රේණිගත කිරීමෙන් පසු පළමු 48 දෙනා අතරට පැමිණ මීටර් 4*400 සහ මීටර් 400 කේවල ඉසව්වට සහභාගි වීමට සුදුසුකම් ලබා ඇත. ඒ 2005 WC ශ්‍රී ලංකා පිරිමි මීටර් 400 මලල ක්‍රීඩකයා WC සඳහා සුදුසුකම් ලැබීමෙන් පසුවය. අවසන් වරට ක්‍රීඩා කළේ ප්‍රවීණ මලල ක්‍රීඩක ප්‍රසන්න අමරසේකරයි.

ශ්‍රී ලංකා මලල ක්‍රීඩා කණ්ඩායම අපගේ ක්‍රීඩක ක්‍රීඩිකාවන්ගේ දක්‍ෂතා පුරෝකථනය කර විශ්ලේෂණය කර WC සඳහා සුදුසුකම් ලැබීමේ අවස්ථාව දැක ඔවුන් කලින් ඇතුළත් කර තිබුණි. ලෝක මලල ක්‍රීඩා උළෙල අද උදෑසන ශ්‍රී ලංකා මලල ක්‍රීඩා සමඟින් ක්‍රීඩක ක්‍රීඩිකාවන්ගේ ලැයිස්තුව නිල වශයෙන් තහවුරු කළේය.

බුඩාපෙස්ට් WC සඳහා ශ්‍රී ලංකා කණ්ඩායම ක්‍රීඩක ක්‍රීඩිකාවන් අට දෙනෙකු සමඟ ලෝක කුසලාන තරඟාවලිය සඳහා ශ්‍රී ලංකාව මෙතෙක් සහාභාගි වන දෙවන විශාලතම කණ්ඩායම වේ.

Athletics

Hero’s Welcome for Golden Girl Wasana

Published

2 weeks ago

May 3, 2026

Editor

Sri Lanka celebrated in style as its lone gold medalist Nipuni Wasana at the 6th Asian Beach Games returned home to a rousing welcome, marking a proud moment for the nation.

Airwoman Nipuni Wasana stole the spotlight in Sanya, China, where she clinched gold in the Women’s 50kg Beach Wrestling event. In the final, she overcame Vietnam’s Doan Thi Kim Oanh with a composed and commanding performance, securing a historic victory for Sri Lanka.

Her achievement was met with a grand at Bandaranaike International Airport, where Air Force personnel, sports officials, and supporters gathered to honor her success. Wasana was also given the distinction of carrying the national flag at the closing ceremony, highlighting her status as the country’s top performer at the Games.

Sri Lanka wrapped up its campaign with a total of seven medals one gold, two silver, and four bronze demonstrating competitive strength across multiple disciplines.

The Women’s Beach Kabaddi team delivered an impressive performance to secure silver, while the Men’s team contributed with a bronze medal finish. In Athletics, Ishara Samanmali earned silver in the women’s long jump, and Sashikala Lankathilaka claimed bronze. The Men’s 4x60m relay team also added to the tally with a bronze-winning effort.

A contingent of 77 Sri Lankan athletes competed in eight sports at the Games. Although several disciplines did not produce medals, the team achieved a respectable 10th place overall.
Host nation China dominated the medal standings with 24 gold medals, followed by Thailand and Iran.

Athletics

Tharanga Claims Historic Gold in Nairobi with Record-Breaking Throw

Published

3 weeks ago

April 26, 2026

Editor

Sri Lanka’s rising javelin sensation Rumesh Tharanga delivered a remarkable performance on the international stage, clinching gold at the Kip Keino Classic in Nairobi with a stunning meet record throw of 89.28 metres.

Competing against an elite field, Tharanga outshone some of the sport’s biggest names, including Olympic champion Thomas Röhler and Kenya’s celebrated Olympic silver medallist and world champion Julius Yego. His victory marks one of the most significant achievements in Sri Lankan athletics in recent years.

The triumph is further highlighted by Tharanga’s consistency, as this is his second throw exceeding 89 metres within a month. Such performances signal his growing dominance and position him firmly among the world’s top javelin throwers this season.

Athletics

SLA Secretary Resigns Just Weeks After Appointment

Published

4 weeks ago

April 19, 2026

Editor

Madhawa Bandara Senarath has stepped down from his role as Secretary of Sri Lanka Athletics (SLA), only about a month after assuming office. His resignation was submitted shortly before the Sinhala and Tamil New Year, bringing an abrupt end to his brief tenure.

Sources indicate that internal disagreements within the newly appointed executive committee played a key role in his decision. The dispute is believed to have centered on the selection process for the National Junior Team set to compete at the upcoming Asian Junior Championship.

Sri Lanka Athletics is scheduled to hold its first executive committee meeting after the New Year on April 21. During this meeting, an acting secretary is expected to be appointed to temporarily fill the position. A permanent replacement will later be chosen at a special general meeting.