Ushan shatters SL indoor record
23-year-old high jumper Ushan Thiwanka Perera, who is now based in Texas USA, shattered the Sri Lanka indoor high jump record with a personal best of 2.25m at the Lone Star Conference Championship on Sunday .
He shattered the record of 2.24m set by National Outdoor record (2.27m) holder Manjula Kumara Wijesekara back in 2016, when he won a Bronze medal at the Asian Indoor Championship.
Ushan who left the country on a scholarship last year to Texas A&M University-Commerce, also achieved Sri Lanka elite National Pool mark of 2.22m,which qualifies him to be included in the elite National pool as well as top high-performance pool by the Sports Ministry.
His performance also was a record for his school, as well as joint sixth-highest performance in Division II indoor history.
The former Maris Stella College athlete who trained under Sanarath Fernando during his school days, won the South Asian Silver medal and had a personal best of 2.24m when he left for the USA on scholarship.
Ushan had a difficult childhood growing up as both his parents suffered from polio.However, that did not stop the determined athlete from achieving great heights in his life, where he is now a step closer to his Olympic dream.
He is ranked joint number one in Asia at the moment for this year along with India’s Tejaswin Shankar (2.25), who also trains in the USA. His performance so far is also joint 6th best from Asia for 2020/2021.
