Hopes for a athletics medal after 12 years in Asian Games went sky high after long jumper Janaka Prasad Wimalasiri leaped 8.10m , a distance which is in the podium range in any of the previous Asian Games . his performance also just 4cm shorter than current games record which is 8.14m .
He did this in his first attempt of the competition at the National trials held at Sugathadasa stadium on Saturday 12th which is also his only competition since commonwealth Games.
The Sri Lankan qualification standard for the games was 7.95m. Wimalasiri’s previous personal best was 7.92m and had leapt 8.13m with the wind last year at the National Sports festival at Matara which isn’t valid as his personal best due to plus wind which was more than 2.0 m/s.
Wimalasiri had represented Sri Lanka in the previous Asian Games and was a finalist while he now trains under Cuban coach Luis Miranda.
More about Janaka’ s rise to fame
Past performance of the Asian Games
2014
| Long jump |
Li Jinzhe |
8.01 | Kim Deok-hyeon |
7.90 | Gao Xinglong |
7.86 |
2010
| Long jump |
Kim Deok-hyeon |
8.11 | Su Xiongfeng |
8.05 | Hussein Al-Sabee |
7.96 |
2006
| Long jump |
Hussein Al-Sabee |
8.02 | Saleh Al-Haddad |
7.88 | Ahmed Faiz |
7.85 |
2002
| Long jump |
Hussein Al-Sabee |
8.14 GR |
Li Dalong |
7.99 | Al-Waleed Abdulla |
7.80 |
1998
| Long jump |
Masaki Morinaga |
8.10 | Liu Hongning |
8.05 | Abdulrahman Al-Nubi |
7.99 |