Ushan to compete in NCAA Div 2 finals today
US Based Ushan Thiwanka will be competing in the NCAA Div 2 finals today in Michigan, where he will be eyeing to jump the magic mark of 2.33m to make the Tokyo cut. The 23-year-old High Jumper Ushan Thiwanka Perera, who now studies at the Texas A&M University-Commerce, broke the SL Indoor record with a 2.25m leap on 21 February.
Next month (28 March) he broke the 16-year-old Sri Lanka National High Jump record by leaping 2.28m at the Texas Relay Championship. Then after another month (9 May) he broke the South Asian record in the event with a 2.30m leap, which is the best performance by a Sri Lankan in the Athletics field for more than a decade.
At the moment he is joint 7th best jumper in the world. However, with the introduction of new tougher qualification standards for Tokyo Olympics, he will either have to jump the 2.33m direct qualification mark or drastically improve his world ranking position (which is now at 48th place in the Road to Olympic list), if he is to make it to the final 32.
To do so he has to collect placing scores at higher ranked competitions, but US University competitions only gives him 15 points placing score for first place. SLA said they are keen to take Ushan to participate at the Kazakhstan Open, which is a World Athletics bronze medal event, which gives 60 points for first place as placing score. The athletic fraternity will keep their fingers crossed he will be able to leap the magic 2.33m mark today, which will clear all complications.
SLA has the option of getting him down to Sri Lanka for the last stage of the National Championship, which will give him 100 bonus points as a placing score for first place, though there will be legal complications with Sri Lanka’s quarantine law, where he will have to be under14 days quarantine.
The former Maris Stella College athlete won the South Asian Silver medal and had a personal best of 2.24m when he left for the USA. Ushan had a difficult childhood as both his parents suffered from polio. He was even compelled to sell his motor car which he won when he was adjudged the best athlete at the 2019 National Sports Festival, to finance his trip to the USA. 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.
