Indunil beat favourite to win gold in China| Gayanthika ,Himasha finish in podium
Indian Middle distance runner Jinson Johnson came to the 800m race with Olympic participation and personal best of 1:45.98 seconds yet it was Sri Lankan ,Indunil Herath who turned the table to win the gold of the event while Himasha Eashan and Gayanthika Abeyrathne was the only athlete to finish in the podium at the Asian Grand prix series -1st leg held at Jianhua, China today.
Indunil clocked 1 minutes 50. 69 seconds in close battle with Johnson who clocked 1.50.71 seconds for the second position.
Eashan who was training in Jamaica prior to this clocked 10.43 seconds in 100m to finish behind Chinese Mi Hong (10.37 seconds) who won the race . Zu Haiyang finished third.
Sprinter Himasha Eashan secure the second place clocking 10.43 seconds in the men’s 100m which won by Chinese Mi Hong with 10.37 seconds . Zu Haiyang finished third with 10.48 seconds.
Gayanthika Abeyrathne finished third with time of impressive 2 minutes 03 . 78 seconds in the women’s 800m behind Wang ChunYu/CHN (2:03.25) & Tintu Luka/IND(2:03.59) where Nimali Lyanarachchi finished in the fifth position with 2:08.47 seconds.
In the other event of the day Sprinter Rumeshika Rathnayake finished in fifth place clocking seasonal best 11.82 seconds in the 100m two Javelin throwers Sumedha Ranasinghe and Waruna Lakshan finished in 7tha and 8th positions. Ajith Premakumara could only clocked 48.71 seconds when he finished fourth in the 400m .
Tharika Fernando finished fifth in the shot put with best of 13.99m while high jumper Tharanga Vinodani could not clear her starting height of 1.65m.
Sri Lanka team was affected by travel schedule as they arrived just a day before the competition and most of the athlete said they were too tired to perform their best.
The Second leg of Asian GP held in 27th Thursday also in China.
