Dilhani, Janaka finish within best eight

Javelin Thrower Dilhani Lekamge and Long jumper Janaka Prasad Wimalasiri finished within the top eight in the finals, but SL track and field athletes had a disappointing day as none of them could achieve their personal best or a medal.

Lekamge, the Asian Silver medalist was first to take the field from the country’s athletes, and she finished with the fifth best throw of 56.02m where Australian Kathryn Mitchell won the Gold medal with a new games record of 68.92m.
Long jumper Wimalasiri finished 7th with a best leap of 7.89m where South African Lovo Manyonga finished first, leaping 8.41m, a new games record.

Sprinter Rumeshika Kumari Rathnayake finished 6th in the 200m semi-finals. She could not better her previous time of 23.43 seconds she got in the heats and clocked 23.6 seconds running from the third lane.

High jumper Manjula Kumara Wijesekara, who had an injury, could not even complete the opening height of 2.18m in the finals, even though he cleared 2.21m during qualifications. Australian Brandon Starc won the Gold medal with a leap of 2.32m which was new personal best for him.

In the other events of the day, Botswana’s Amantle Motsho won the 400m while defending champion, Jamaica’s Stephenie McPherson finished third. Jamaican Aisha Praught won the 3000m steeple chase with a time of 9 minutes 21 .00 seconds.
The 800m duo Nimali Liyanarachchi and Gayanthika Abeyrathne will compete in the 800m heat today at 7.50am and 8.06am SL time.