Abeyrathna nets gold in 800 metres

By Hishan Welmilla 

in Ashgabat, Turkmenistan

Sri Lanka won one gold medal on the fourth day of the indoor athletics competition at the Asian Indoor and Martial Arts Games (AIAMG 2017) currently underway in Ashgabat, Turkmenistan.

Gayanthika Abeyrathna secured gold for Sri Lanka in the women’s 800 metres. She clocked 2 minutes and 5.12 seconds to cross the finishing mark to the delight of the Sri Lankan camp.

“I was able to have a good lead at the beginning and able to continue till the end. I am happy to get another medal in my pet event and I hope I can do better in the future as well,” said Abeyrathna after the race.

Guiping Zhang of China won the silver (2.07.63) while Arina Kleshchkova of Kyrgyzstan (2.09.97) won the bronze. Indunil Herath was unlucky at the last second to lose his gold as Qatar’s Jamal Hairane was quick over the last few metres to take the gold with a time of 1 minute and 49.45 seconds.

Herath clocked 2 minutes and 49.45 seconds behind the Qatari athlete.

“It’s hard to believe what has happened. I was able to have the lead right throughout but the Qatari athlete just got ahead of me at the finish,” said Herath. Amir Moradi won the bronze with a time of 2 minutes and 49.51 seconds.

In the men’s high jump event 13 competitors vied for the gold medal but Manjula had to be satisfied with a bronze medal. Manjula jumped only 2.21 meters, which is far shorter than his career best jumps.

Although Manjula had the best record among the jumpers who competed in the event, with jumps of 2.27 metres and 2.25 metres as his personal best and season’s best respectively, he could not make any improvement.

Eddin Majd of Syria took home the gold medal with a jump of 2.26 metres and Keyvan Zadeh of Iran won the silver.

Sri Lankan athletic coach Sajitha Jayalal was thrilled with the performances of the Sri Lankan athletes. 

“It’s good to take more medals home. I have confidence in my athletes and believed they will bring results,” Jayalal said. 

Sri Lanka is currently 17th on the medals table with one gold, two silvers and one bronze.

AIMAG2017: Jayasiri wins silver medal for Sri Lanka

Amila Jayasiri of Sri Lanka won the silver medal in the men’s long jump event at the Asian Indoor and Martial Arts Games (AIMAG2017) which is currently underway in Ashgabat, Turkmenistan.

Jayasiri competed in the men’s long jump medal event against 18 other competitors. Jayasiri had recorded a distance of 8.15 metres as his best performance while 7.83 meters was his season’s best. Jayasiri said he was confident of bringing Sri Lanka a medal.

As predicted, he justified his presence at the AIMAG2017 by taking the silver by jumping a distance of 7.45 metres. From all the competitors who lined up for the event only Jayasiri and one other athlete, Ming Tai of Hong Kong, had gone over 8.00 metres. Jayasiri placed behind Tien Trong of Vietnam.

Hemasha Eashan also competed in the men’s 60 metres dash and only managed to progress to the semifinals with a time of 6.89 seconds, which was the time he got during the preliminary round. Vidusga Lakshani placed 7th in the women’s long jump event.