Rumesh Tharanga established a new meet and Sri Lanka record with a throw of 85.45 metres in the javelin throw to win the gold medal at the Asian Throwing Championship held in South Korea yesterday.
In the same event another Sri Lankan Sumedha Ranasinghe threw the javelin to a distance of 77.57 metres to finish in third place and win a bronze medal.
The silver medal was won by M. Yasir of Pakistan with a throw of 78.10 metres.
Sri Lanka’s leading woman’s thrower and Asian champion Dilhani Lekamge won a bronze medal with a throw of 57.94 metres at this championship.
Meanwhile, Asian Games gold medallist Tharushi Karunaratne and sprinter Kalinga Kumarage left for Spain on Friday to compete in a World Athletics Bronze label event in Bilbao where they will seek to improve their ‘Road to Paris 24’ rankings.
With the qualification period for the Paris Olympics ending on June 30, the competitions in the next couple of weeks will be emphatic for track and field athletes.
The 800 metres specialist Karunaratne is currently ranked 63rd in the ‘Road to Paris 24’ rankings and needs to improve that to be within the top 48 positions or clock 1:59.30 seconds to book her ticket to the Olympics before the June 30 deadline.
Kumarage is ranked 53rd in the men’s 400 metres and needs to clock 45.00 seconds or improve the ranking to be within the top 48 positions. He has a seasonal best of 45.35 seconds while his personal best is 45.07 seconds.
They are expected to compete on June 18.
Fellow 400 metres sprinter Aruna Dharshana who is in the 54th position in the ranking is expected to compete in the Bahamas on Sunday.
