• SL win bronze in 4x400m Mixed Relay 

Kalinga Kumarage secured the bronze medal in the Men’s 400m event at the ongoing 26th Asian Athletics Championships in Gumi, South Korea on Wednesday (28) and it was Sri Lanka’s first such medal in the event since 2007.

Prasanna Amarasekara was the last Lankan athlete to clinch a medal, when he won gold in the Men’s 400m event during the edition held in Amman, Jordan. 

Kumarage clocked a season best time of 45.55s to finish third in the Men’s 400m final at the Championships being held at the Gumi Civic Stadium in Gumi.

Ammar Ismail Ibrahim of Qatar won the gold medal with a time of 45.33s while Japan’s Kentaro Sato secured the bronze medal after clocking 45.50s in the 400m final.

Afterwards the Lankan quartet of Sadew Vimansa Rajakaruna, Lakshima Mendis, Kalinga Kumarage and Harshani Fernando finished the final in third place after clocking a time of 3 minutes 21.95 seconds.

India won the gold medal in the event while China secured the silver. Although it was announced that China and Sri Lanka were disqualified for lane infringements initially, following an appeal by respective athletics federations, the medals were reinstated.   

Sri Lanka’s Nadeesha Ramanayake clocked 54.70s in the Women’s 400m final and was placed seventh.

In the meantime, sprinter Chamod Yodasinghe was eliminated from the Men’s 100m semi-finals after he ended 10th overall with a time of 10.46s.

The 26th Asian Athletics Championships is taking place in Gumi, South Korea until 31 May. 

(JK)