Four youth athletes won medals at the Asian Youth Athletic Championship held in Uzbekistan last week.
 Thushen Silva doing the pole vault
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They brought home two silver and two bronze medals that almost matched the performance held last year in Kuwait.
The first Sri Lankan to win a medal was Thushen Silva of Maris Stella College, Negombo. He won the silver medal by clearing 4.70 metres in the pole vault event. This was a historic achievement as it is only after 72 years it was won.
The first Sri Lankan to win a silver medal in this event was MA Akbar at the first Asian Youth Games held in 1951. Thushen Silva is trained by former athlete Sanath Gunaratne.
The second silver medal was won by Nilupul Pehesara of Vijitha Central Dickwella in the high jump event for boys. Peheasara cleared 2.01 metres to finish second while Kim Hyeonsik of South Korea and Do Hoang Nghia of Vietnam were declared joint third after clearing the same height in the boys’ high jump event.
Ayomal Akalanka from Ambagamuwa MMV showed his promise by winning the bronze medal at the 400 m hurdles.
His effort was somewhat significant as the Qatar athlete set up a new Asian record and Akalanka finished third with his personal best time of 51.40 seconds.
Akalanka coached by Anura Bandara (former Asian medallist Sugath Tillekaratne’s coach) put up a good fight until the finish according to Sri Lankan team manager Chandana Ekanayake.
Kasuni Wickramasinghe, who took part with a hamstring injury, ran with determination to secure the bronze medal in the 800 metres event. The lass from Wickramabahu National School, Gampola was unable to walk after the event due to the strain while running and had to be treated immediately. In fact Kasuni last year also won the bronze medal in this event and her performance this time was an improvement of 2m 06secs.
The seven youth athletes received valuable exposure while competing against 45 countries.