(12th June 2012) : The 15th Asian Junior Athletic Championship officially kicked off on the 9th (Saturday) in Sri Lanka at the Sugathadasa International Stadium.
The event started with a glamorous cultural show, 33 Asian junior Athletes compete each other for 44 Gold Medals. Total number of 44 events held in 4 days at Colombo Sugathadasa International Stadium.
Sri Lanka participated with 104 junior athletes and ended the tournament earning 6 medals. Shiwanthi Rathnayake and Dulaj Madushanka managed to win two Gold Medals for the 400m (Woman) 400m (Men) on the second day of the championship. Two silver medals for the Sri Lankan camp was won by Nimesha Siriwardane for High Jump and the Woman 4x400 Relay team on the last day(12) of the event. In the mean time, Supun Viraj Randeniya and Chamika Jayamini added two more Bronze Medals to the Lankan medal list from 110m Hurdles and 3000m Steeple Chase.
The final medal sheet with a total number of 6 under the Sri Lankan name is the best performance by a Sri Lanka Athletic team in an Asian Junior Athletic Championship so far. The last highest number of medals in a similar tournament was four medals in 1994 where Sri Lankan legends Susanthika Jayasinghe and Dhamayanthi Dharsha both secured gold medals in their events.
The 15th Asian Junior Championship ended with a very colorful closing ceremony performed by the Sri Lankan Defence forces. Education Minister Bandula Gunawardane attended the event as the chief Guest alongside few Asian Athletic Association delegations.
The Events proceedings ended with a Media Briefing with the members of the Sri Lankan relay team, their Coaches, Sport Ministry's Director General Mrs. Ranjani Jayakodi, the team manager Susanthika Jayasinghe and Mr. Sunil Gunawardane.
Director General Mrs. Ranjani agreed with the requirements that were pointed out by the of coaches to improve the skills of the juniors and she also stated that the Ministry is planning to take a step forward to utilize them with the required training.
All the participant of the media brief was satisfied with the results of the Sri Lankan team in the tournament and expressed their plans for the future with the juniors to make them better for the future championships.
The Silver medal winning Relay team expressed their views and post match feelings to the media at the breifing.
4x400 - Relay Team
- Shiwanthi Rathnayaka (Sri Lanka woman Team Captain) - St. Josephs College - Kegalle
- Pavithra Harshani - Gurukula College - Kelaniya
- Nadeeshani Handerson - Gateway International College
- Kanchana Kumari
Overall Medal Table
China with 15 Gold Medals, 5 Silver Medals, 3 Broze Medals which sums up to a total of 23 medals over all ranked first in the medal table and ended the championship as the toppers. Fifteen countries out of all the participated countries ended up without winnings a single medal at the championship.
(C) Cricturf
