The Sri Lankan junior athletes who excelled at the Asian Youth Athletics Championship in Kuwait returned home yesterday and were warmly welcomed by Sri Lanka Athletics (SLA) officials. The team of 11 young athletes from Sri Lanka won three silver medals and two bronze medals. Two medals were won by young athletes and this is a great achievement, said ALS President Major General Palitha Fernando.
This meet in Kuwait paved the way for greater visibility for Sri Lankan athletes as we faced great difficulties in securing financial support for this tour during this difficult time. We are happy to have five medalists on our team added SLA Chief.
Deneth Anuhas Edirisinghe and Lesandu Arthavidu Gamage won the silver and bronze medals in the men’s high jump. Deneth from the lesser known school in Southern Province, Bodhagama MV Thanamalwila jumped 2.01m to finish in second place while Lesandu from DS Senanayake Vidyalaya Colombo jumped 1.97m and finished secured third place.
Kasuni Nirmali Wickramasinghe won silver in the girls’ 800m with a time of 2 minutes 15.42 seconds. Praveen Jayathilaka (Thurstan) won silver in the boys 400m with a time of 48.56 seconds and Avishka Rajapaksa (Sir John Kotelawala MV) won bronze in 48.70 seconds in the same event.
The ALS President further added that we want to build a good second string sports team and these athletes always get a big boost from this meet. We wanted to protect these athletes and give them good support by providing them with all the facilities.
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