The chances of the country’s elite set of athletes to book a birth at the forthcoming Paris Olympics are fast receding judging by the timings recorded by a few of them in recent meets, but, this summation was disputed by the Secretary of Sri Lanka Athletics (SLA) Saman Kumara Gunawardene.
He sounded highly optimistic of at least four of the country’s elite athletes namely sprinters Yupun Abeykoon, Kalinga Kumarage, Aruna Darshana and javelin thrower Dilhani Lekamge, being able to stake a claim for the Parisian Games.
Therefore Gunawardena did not necessarily buy the argument that the recent timings registered by a few of them will count against them, come the deadline of 30 June.
“We feel that Yupun, Kalinga, Dilhani and Aruna, will have genuine chances to reach the Olympic Qualifying Rankings,” he told The Daily Morning Sports.
“They are slowly but surely closing in on the required rankings and all is still not lost for us (Sri Lanka). So it is best that the people here keep their fingers crossed and hope for the best. I am sure that of this lot, Dilhani will be the best prospect as of now, but do not for a moment discount the other three as well.”
As the elite athletes continue their rankings quest for the Summer Games, the SLA Secretary insisted that there was time yet for the aforementioned quartet to reach their end goal.
He added that the SLA was hopeful that the country’s contingent of elite athletes will be in action at the 102nd National Athletics Championships 2024 to be worked off from 23 to 25 June at the Sugathadasa Stadium.
The Diyagama Stadium has been put on standby in case the Sugathadasa Stadium is unavailable, he added.
At the most recent meet held in Japan which was the Seiko Golden Grand Prix, Kalinga Kumarage competing in the (400m Men) event had to be content with the second place with a time of 45.57s, while failing to reach the Olympic Qualifying mark of 45.00s.
The first place in the event went to Kentara Sato of Japan who clocked a time of 45.21s. However, it has to be said that Kumarage has improved from his previous meet, where he returned a time of 45.92s, while competing at the Osaka Grand Prix a fortnight ago also in Japan.
But, athletics analysts say the biggest disappointment in the contingent of elite athletes, who have struggled to reach the ‘2024 Road to Olympics Qualifying Rankings’, thus far, has been South Asia’s fastest man Italy-based Yupun Abeykoon.
The 29-year-old national record holder in the Men’s 100m failed to make the cut for the Olympics in his pet event, while competing at the Roma Sprint Festival over the weekend.
Abeykoon could only clock 10.21s at the meet and was placed fourth in the Men’s 100m with incumbent US Olympic champion Marcell Jacobs clocking 10.07s to clinch first place.
Both Kumarage and Abeykoon had also competed at the Dubai Grand Prix early this month in their bid to reach the Olympic Qualifying standard.
But, the duo had struggled to make an impact, thus dealing a blow to their hopes of representing the country at the greatest sporting show on earth.
According to sources, Abeykoon will be left with another three more international meets across Europe, where he will need to reach the Olympic Rankings to qualify for the Summer Games.
The group of elite athletes also consists of Tharushi Karunaratna, Nadeesha Ramanayake, Gayanthika Abeyratna and Sumedha Ranasingha.