• Aruna Darshana and men’s 4x400 relay team tipped to qualify 

With around 127-days more, for the start of the greatest sporting show on earth, the 2024 Paris Summer Olympics, Sri Lanka may have to rely on sprinter Aruna Darshana and its men’s 4x400 metres relay team, in its quest for long overdue laurels, at the quadrennial showpiece, set to run from 26 July to 11 August.

An analysis done by The Daily Morning Sports, into chances of Sri Lankan sprinters to qualify for the Games, revealed that Sri Lankan athlete Aruna Darshana, may have an outside chance of doing so, in his favoured event-men’s 400 metres.

Darshana is currently placed 46th, in the International Olympic Committee (IOC) world rankings and if by some quirk of fate, he is able to solidify his position he might be able to compete. at the Summer Games after all.

Furthermore, the Sri Lankan men’s 4x400 relay team also may stand an outside chance of being featured at the Paris Games.

This would only be possible, if they could maintain their current world ranking of 15th, for 120-days more, without slipping down the IOC pecking order.

However, the review done by this paper, has shown that Sri Lanka’s best bet for some time at the Summer Games, South Asia’s fastest man Yupun Abeykoon, may struggle to make the cut for the marquee event, as he has been laid low by injury for months.

The sprint sensation is only set to resume full training around May, which may be a tall order for him to qualify for the Games, which have also been one of his lifelong dreams.

To do so, he has to be featured within the first 38 sprinters in the 100 metres world rankings of the IOC. 

If not the country’s most promising athlete of the recent past, will need to record a time of less than 10 seconds, in a qualifying round, which would pave the way for him to have a shot at Olympic glory, but it will be an uphill task but not truly beyond him.

In the meantime, on the women’s front, Sri Lanka sprinter Nadeesha Ramanayake is presently placed 49th in the IOC world rankings and hence she may struggle to qualify for the showpiece Games.

This is because, only the first 48 athletes in the women’s 400 metres event, are likely to be afforded the opportunity to contest the Games by the world body.

Another Sri Lankan athlete, Gayanthika Abeyratne, is in the same boat as Ramanayake, being placed 50th in the world rankings, for the women’s 800 metres event.

There too only the first 48 sprinters are set to qualify for the quadrennial event and it could be safely surmised, that for Sri Lanka other than Aruna Darshana and the men’s 4x400 metres relay team, the rest will have to be content with dreaming of qualifying, let alone Olympic success.