The US based Sri Lankan marathoner Hiruni Wijayaratne shattered yet another national record when she clocked 16 minutes 17. 51 seconds to finish 15th and set up the National record at the 5000m at the Music City Distance Carnival held in Nashville, Tennessee USA on Sunday.
This was a fine effort after Hiruni returned to competition after the Coronavirus outbreak.
Earlier, the 5000m national record was set by Nilani Ratnayake of 16 minutes 17.82 seconds last year at the Army Athletic Championship.
The 29-year-old long distance runner Wijayaratne is keeping her fingers crossed for more opportunities to keep herself going and reach her goal of qualifying for the Tokyo Olympic Games. Her main ambition is to take part in the marathon at the Olympics and this was the newest addition to her National record. She already holds many national records over several distances such as Marathon, Half Marathon, 10000m and 5000m while she also holds the
records in the 5km, 10km, 15km, 20km, 25km, 30km road races.
"I didn’t think I would get the opportunity to step on a track in 2020. But an opportunity came and i couldn’t be more thankful," said Hiruni after completed her record running of 5000m. "I have a big goal to achieve soon,” said Hiruni. “Going to keep my eyes and ears open for a 10.000m race on the track. From September first I can qualify via a marathon to the Tokyo Olympics. So that’s the main target I’m aiming,” added Hiruni, with high hopes as World Athletics will resume the Olympic qualification period from 1st September instead of 1st December for Marathon and race walking events.
Hiruni Wijayaratne was placed 11th at the last Commonwealth Games marathon in Gold Coast Australia but she could not finish the race at the 10000m at Asian Games in Jakarta, Indonesia However she never gave up her target and always wanted to bring honour to Sri Lanka.
She was lucky to take part at the last National championship in Colombo for the first time and won two gold medals from 5000m and 10000m. Also, she was the first Sri Lankan to win the South Asian Games marathon last year in Kathmandu, Nepal to bag a Gold medal for Sri Lanka and She is the present South AsianGames marathon record holder.
