Three Sri Lankan champion athletes Yupun Abeykoon, Gayanthika Abeyratne and Nilani Ratnayake have qualified to take part at the World Athletics championships which is scheduled to be held from July 15 to 24 in USA .
According to the IAAF world rankings these three athletes got through to world championship and it's very important said Sri Lanka Athletic President Major General Palitha Fernando. The final rankings during the period between June 28 in 2021 to June 26 2022 is considered for the qualification
. Sri Lankan champion sprinter National and South Asian record holder Yupun Abeykoon is in top form to reach this qualification mark .He has obtained 1239 points ending up in 42 nd place out of 48 best athletes to reach this qualification slot .
The 27 year old Abeykoon based in USA really performed well at the recent meets which helped to reach his qualification mark and got the much needed exposure before this meet. The last Tokyo Olympian Abeykoon is very keen to take part in this world championship before the Commonwealth Games to get good exposure .Yupun renewed his National and South Asian 100m record with a time of 10.06 seconds recently is having more expectations at this future meets. His improvement mainly due to his dedication and his training from Italy and participation in more European meets paved the way to get success. Meanwhile 3000m steeplechase champion Nilani Ratnayake who missed her Olympic chance last minute but her dedication gave good results this time to gain world qualification slot.
The army athlete hailing from Sabaragamuwa Province (Ratnapura) has obtained 1185 points and finished 38 out of 45 athletes and her ambition is to improve her performance after getting more exposure.She recorded 9.40.24 seconds to establish new National record of 3000m steeplechase event gave big boost to go forward .
Sri Lankan middle distance champion Gayanthika Abeyratne from Sri Lanka Navy hailing from Sooriyawewa , Hambantota reached this highest qualification to complete for the world championship from 800m. She has both 800m and 1500m National records while her approach as a 36 year old athlete is very impressive.
Gayanthika already proved age is no barrier to get success. She has obtained 1161 points while ending 46 out of 48 athletes to get world championship qualification and she is very ambitious athlete having run both 800m and 1500m events .She has finished 2.01.44 seconds to set up 800m new National record in last April got chance to take part at the recent European circuit meets with Nilani Ratnayake and those kind of meets gave big exposure for them Infact both Nilani Ratnayake and Gayanthika Abeyratne coached by experience coach Sajith Jayalal who is the Director of National Sports Science Institute of the Sports Ministry.Both Nilani and Gayanthika got especial training from Nuwara Eliya under the guidance of Sajith Jayalal and high attitude training is very important for these athletes but the most important foreign training was not available for local athletes but Sri Lanka Athletic gave a chance to these athletes to take part in foreign meets which is very vital for them.
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