Gayanthi Abeyratne of the Navy established a new Sri Lanka record in the 800m for women with a time of 2:01.44 on the second day of the Centenary National Athletic Championship held at the Mahinda Rajapaksa Stadium in Diyagama yesterday.
She had also shone on the first day by winning the 1500m event in a time of 4:12.41 with a clear lead.
National runner Nilani Ratnayake also established a new Sri Lanka record in the 3000m steeple chase event for women with a time of 9:40.24 to take the gold medal. This achievement is one better than her own record to achieve qualification standard for the Commonwealth Games and the Asian Games.
Tharusha Karunaratne established a new Sri Lanka junior record in the 800m event. She clocked in at 2:04.40 to better the previous record set by Dilshi Kumarasinghe.
Another Sri Lanka junior record was set by Amesha Hettiarachchi in the 400m hurdles event. The new record time was 1:00.22 to better her own record.
Sri Lanka’s long jumper Sarangi Silva won the long jump event for women clearing 6.50 metres.