Sarangi leaps into Long Jump finals

Long Jumper Sarangi Silva kept her medal hopes alive with a leap of 6.42m in the first attempt of the Long Jump qualification to advance to the finals of the Commonwealth Games 2022.

The 25-year-old hailing from Sri Sumangala BV Panadura has been performing well for a while now. Earlier this year, she set a new Sri Lanka record of 6.65m and topped the Asian list for Long Jump. Her performance is better than the Gold medalists of the previous three editions of Asian Games. She was a prime hope of an elusive Asian Games Gold medal this year before the Games was postponed to 2023.

She then had to quickly adjust her plans when at the last minute she found out that she had qualified for the World Athletics Championship in Oregon USA through world ranking position, but opted out of the competition as she did not want to go through Visa hassle which would jeopardize her preparation for the Commonwealth Games.

Instead, she took a flight to Poland to train for the Commonwealth Games, where she participated in a few competitions in Europe in preparation for the Birmingham Games.

Even though some top names are missing from some Athletics events, which is a common feature at the Commonwealth Games, the Long Jump field is truly competitive as four athletes passed the 6.80m mark during the qualification round.

The World Athletics Championship Bronze medal was won by Brazil’s Leticia Oro Melo with a leap of 6.89m, to qualify for the Commonwealth Games. US-based Ghana athlete Deborah Acquah has leapt 6.85m, which shows the competitive level of the Long Jump field.

Finals include the likes of Olympic Bronze and World Championship Silver medalist Ese Brume of Nigeria and World Indoor Bronze medalist of England, Lorraine Ugen.

Finals will be held at 11.35 p.m. on Sunday.

Meanwhile, Gayanthika Abeyrathne finished overall 13th in the 1500m, while 12 were selected for the finals. She finished 7th in her heat clocking 4 minutes 16.97 seconds. 6 from her heat were selected for the finals.