Sri Lankan-Venezuelan Marathon couple in action in Poland
Sri Lanka and South Asian record holder of the women’s Marathon, Hiruni Keshara Wijayaratne, made yet another unusually long journey to Gdynia Poland on Wednesday to compete in the World Athletics Half Marathon Championship 2020 to be held on Saturday 17th.
Unlike previous trips where she traveled alone to compete for Sri Lanka, this time she was accompanied by her husband Luis Orta. And to make trip even more special, while Hiruni will represent the island nation of Sri Lanka, Luis will be representing his home country Venezuela during the same event.
Both Hiruni and Luis hold National records in the Half Marathon in their respective countries. They live in Colorado USA and train together each single day with the goal of raising the flags of their respective countries high during international events.
“This is our second time competing at a world event together. First time was the London World Championship 2017 when we both ran the marathon. It’s nice to have a partner with the same goals and training demands. Luis is the one who actually encouraged me to focus on the world half marathon event as it is the best and most certain opportunity this crazy year,” said Hiruni, replying to a query from Ceylon Today during their 17-hour journey from Colorado to Gdynia through Chicago and Denmark.
Another famous athletics couple, the Uibos, Olympic Gold medalist female 400m runner Shaunae Miller-Uibo and her Decathlete husband Maicel Uibo, made headlines last year when the duo represented Bahamas and Estonia at the World Championship and won silver medals in their respective events, a feat which will take Hiruni and Luis over the moon. But dominance by African runners in these distance events has already made it an extremely tough competition, especially when it comes to a world event.
The distance running couple first met at the University of Kentucky, where both of them were part of University athletic team. Later they completed their Bachelors and Masters degrees at the same university and tied the knot in 2015. The duo then moved to Boulder, Colorado, which has an altitude of over 1600m from sea level which helped them to continue high altitude training everyday while being in the comfort of their home.
The couple has had a fair share of success during their career. 30-year-old Hiruni now holds four main Sri Lanka National records – 10000m, 5000m, Marathon and Half Marathon – while also having won the South Asian Gold medal in the marathon last year, marking the first time in history Sri Lanka won the women’s marathon Gold medal at the SAG. Hiruni also represented Sri Lanka at the 2017 World Championship, 2019 World Championship and 2018 Commonwealth Games in the Marathon, and also ran the 10000m during the 2018 Asian Games. During 2018 Commonwealth Games in Gold Coast Australia she was the only one from the Asian continent to finish the women’s marathon. Her half marathon personal best of 1 hour 14 minutes 28 seconds came in January 2019 in Houston, Texas.
Luis has represented Venezuela at the 2016 Rio Olympics Games in the Marathon, a feat Hiruni just missed out since she ran the qualification time outside the qualification window for the Games. Luis also represented Venezuela in the 2014 and 2018 World Half Marathon Championship where he clocked 1 hour 03 minutes 09 seconds in Spain to set the Venezuela National record during the last World Half Marathon in 2018.
With a personal best of 2 hours 16.30 seconds, Luis has also competed at major city marathons such as Berlin Marathon 2018 and Dusseldorf Marathon 2018. Both of them were in Sri Lanka in 2017 to run a half marathon during the Colombo Marathon 2017.
“Our training is a little different. I actually run more KMs per week than him, but it’s mostly the same type of training,” said Hiruni.
Despite the COVID-19 pandemic forcing athletes to be indoors for days, the couple was able to keep their fitness levels high with home training sessions, where they made a series of YouTube videos with their home workouts. Hiruni showed she is ready for business two months ago when she set a new National record in the 5000m running with marathon shoes on the track clocking 16 minutes 17. 51 seconds.
The World Half Marathon 2020 will start at 11.00 a.m. local time in Poland, and Sri Lankans can watch the race from 2.30 p.m. local time on Saturday. 250 runners from 50 countries will compete for glory.
The event was rescheduled from its original date in March and the course has also been adapted to ensure potential risks are kept to a minimum, as now the 21km race will be held in a five km loop around the Gdynia city.
Winners of the event (Men and Women) will walk away with USD 30,000, with second and third placed athletes set to receive 15,000 and 10,000. 4th, 5th and 6th placed athletes will receive USD 7,000, 5,000 and 3,000 respectively. The winning team will receive USD 15,000. USD 50,000 bonuses awaits for athletes who sets world record. This is the only World Athletics series event this year.
Pic Credit – Mountain Techne
