Vinoj, Kalinga ,Asanka win gold in Malaysia

Sprinter Vinoj Suranjaya de Silva continued his impressive run in 2018 clocking a personal best, 10.27 seconds to win the Gold medal in the 100m at the Malaysian Open Athletic Championship held at Kuala Lumpur .

De Silva who erased the 20-year-old 200m SL record of Sugath Thilakarathne clocking 20.68 seconds less than two weeks ago, dazzled with a time of 10.34 seconds in the semi-finals to ease in to final. He did not get the best of starts in the final while running on a wet track, still managed to come back and win the 100m with a personal best time. His time is also the second best by a Sri Lankan athlete and only behind Himasha Eashan’s South Asian Gold medal time of 10.26 seconds which was also a meet record.

quarter miler Kalinga Kumarage too won the gold with 46.60 seconds as he ran a lone race with no one to challenge on the wet track . 400m hurdler Asanka Rathnasena could not match his usual best but manage to win the gold medal with 52 seconds performance .

meanwhile, Rumeshika Kumari Rathnayake had a nightmare at the start in the 100m final but managed to win the Silver medal coming back to the race in last 50m clocking 11.76 seconds.

Rathnayake did not have a good outing in the 200m during the last National trials but it seems she is warming up for the big event the Asian Games later this year. Earlier in the year, she clocked her personal best of 11.51 seconds in the event in Sydney.