Sri Lankan sprinter Rumeshika Rathnayake brings glory to the country

Sri Lanka sprinter Rumeshika Rathnayake beat her personal best in the 100m sprint at the Sydney Grand Prix as she clocked 11.51 seconds to improve on the previous best of 11.60 seconds. Rumeshika who is 22-year-old won a silver medal in Asian Championships in 200m last year, clocked her personal best of 11.60sec in 100m back in 2016. She is preparing for the upcoming Commonwealth Games in Gold Coast and is currently going through a high-performance training in Sydney. This is her 3^rd Test event and she was able to increase performances from 11.75 to 11.51secs. Rumeshika placed 3^rd behind Olympic and World Championship medal holder Britain's Dina Asher-Smith and Australian young sensation Riley Day. Dina Asher clocked 11.26 while Riley clocked her Personal best 11.50 seconds. Meantime, Rumeshika won the Silver in her pet event 200m renewing the Seasonal best 23.62sec. Riley Day easily crossed the line to win the Gold Medal Asian Championship 200m silver medalist Rumeshika who were unable to make her personal best of 23.40sec during this span of time, will look forward to renewing the personal best in coming months. Rumeshika were omitted from the original squad of Commonwealth games sighting that she was not attended and failed to prove qualification standard in National Trials. However, the latest progress of her performances proved her eligibility to represent the country in a lifetime event.

Rumeshika Rathnayake’s progress in this year...

100 m

24 FEB 2018 Sydney Bankstown Invitational 11.74 +1.7 10 MAR 2018 Sydney NSW All-Comers 11.70 -0.6 17 MAR 2018 Sydney Athletics Grand Prix 11.51 +0.9

200 m

17 FEB 2018 Mingara All-Comers 23.8h (+3.4) 24 FEB 2018 Sydney Bankstown Invitational 24.82 (+0.9) 10 MAR 2018 Sydney NSW All-Comers 23.70 (+0.4) 17 MAR 2018 Sydney Athletics Grand Prix AUS 23.62 (+0.1)