In the United Arab Emirates Grand Prix held at the Police Stadium in Dubai, Sri Lankan strong athletes Yupun Abeykoon, Tarushi Karunaratne, Nadisha Ramanayake and Gayantika Abeyratne failed to reach Olympic performance levels.
South Asia’s fastest sprinter and Birmingham Commonwealth Games bronze medalist Abeykoon finished third in the men’s 100m in 10.18 seconds. The standard Olympic qualifying time for that event is 10.00 seconds.
Meanwhile, Asian Games bronze medalist Nadisha Ramanayake finished second in the women’s 400m event with a time of 53.82 seconds and the Olympic qualifying time for that event was 50.95 seconds.
Additionally, Hangzhou gold medalists Tarushi Karunaratne and Gayantika Abeyratne both failed in the women’s 800m event. Tarushi dropped out in the middle of the race and Gayantika finished last. The Olympic qualifying standard time for this event is 1:59.30 seconds.
June 30 is the deadline for athletes to qualify for the Paris Olympics.
Meanwhile, Tarushi, Nadisha, and Kalinga Kumara will participate in the 11th Kinami Michitaka Memorial Athletics Games on May 12 in Osaka, Japan.
International competitions for Sri Lanka’s top athletes:
May 12: Osaka, Japan – 11th Kinami Michitaka Memorial Athletics (Tarushi Karunaratne, Nadisha Ramanayake, and Kalinga Kumarage)
May 19: Tokyo, Japan – Seiko Grand Prix (Kalinga Kumar’s)
May 20-21: Bangkok, Thailand – Asian Relay Championships (22-member team to participate in all five relay events)
May 27-29: Chongqing, China: Second Belt and Road Athletics Invitational Meeting (Secretary of Aruna Darshan and Dilhani)
June 1-2: Taiwan Open (Aruna Darshan, Tarushi Karunaratne, Nadeesha Ramanayake, Gayantika Abeyratne and Dilhani Siyakage)
June 14-15: Mokpo, China: Asian Throwing Championships (Dilhani Syratke and Sumedha Ranasinghe)