Dunukara , Gayani defend their race walking titles

S.S. Dunukara from North Central Province and P.B. Gayani from Southern Province won the men’s and women’s Race walking events respectively  to defend their titles at the 20Km Race walking championship of the 44th National Sports Festival at Anuradapura on Saturday .

Dunukara finished the race with a timing of 1:38.38 a second faster than his last year’s winning time . G.S.Chandika of Western province finished second clocking 1:39.09 seconds while last year’s Silver medalist , T.G.S.N. Appuhamy also from Western Province finished third with a time of 1: 42.19 seconds , two seconds slower than his last year’s runner up time.

In the women’s race Gayani clocked 1:54.28 seconds , two seconds slower than her last year’s winning time but was still enough for her to win the gold medal . Dinusha Dilhani of Souther province last year’s bronze medalist finished second with a time of 2:04.24 seconds while Lakshmi Kalyani also from Southern province finished third with a time 2:08 .11 to seal Southern province 1, 2, 3 in the event .

For the first time , Race walking event was held as an open championship even though it was held concurrently with National Sports Festival.

Men and Women’s Marathons which are also working off concurrently with National Sports will be worked off today at Anuradapura

PIX BY SPORTS MINISTRY .