Teenage star and schoolgirl Tharushi Karunarathna brought glory to Sri Lanka when she won the gold medal in the women’s 800m at the Asian Games on Wednesday (4).
She finished the race in convincing style increasing the gap towards the end of the race in a time of 2m 03.20 seconds. This has made her a triple Asian Champion in the distance having earlier won at the Asian Athletic Championship and the Asia Under-20 championships this year.
Tharushi beat a Chinese Olympian Wang Chunyu in the 800m final to claim the first Asian Games gold medal after 21 years.
The teenager returned to the track in less than 50 minutes to anchor the women’s 4x400m team to clinch the bronze medal which was her second on the same day.
She became the first Sri Lankan schoolgirl since Damayanthi Dharsha (1994) to win a medal at an Asian Games. She is the seventh Sri Lankan to have won an individual gold medal at the Asian Games and only the third woman behind Susanthika Jayasinghe and Damayanthi Dharsha to have accomplished such a task.
The bronze medal won in the women’s 4×400 too was the island’s first in the Games history. They also established a new Sri Lanka record on their way to the bronze.
The men’s 4×400 metres relay team anchored by Kalinga Kumarage too did well to secure the bronze medal, the third medal won for the day.
Javelin thrower Dilhani Lekamge brought some relief on the Sri Lankan medal hopeful at any Asian Games by winning a silver medal in the women’s javelin throw in a new national record as well on Tuesday (3). With this win she ended the 17 year drought on winning a medal in track and field events at the Asian Games held in Hangzhou, China. She achieved a distance of 61.57 metres in her fourth attempt. With this she broke her own national record as well.
At 36-years-old it is a great achievement for Dilhani to win a medal in an individual event at the Asian Games. She becomes the twelfth Sri Lankan athlete to win an individual medal of any colour in track and field events at the Asian Games.
But before that, it was very disappointing to see Sri Lanka miss out on another silver medal in the 4×400 mixed relay event. The team was disqualified when Anura Dharshana was seen stepping on the other lane meant for another team when handing over the baton.
