Janashakthi’s athletes triumph at national meets, establish new records

Janashakthi’s sponsored athletes have once again proved their mettle this year and emerged winners at the recent All Island Schools Sir John Tarbet Athletic Championships, the Junior National Athletics Championships and the Women’s Athletics Championships.

Seven new meet records were also established by Janashakthi’s pool of athletes — Ishara Dayananda clocking 14.96 secs in 100m hurdles, Nimesha Siriwardene with 1.74 m in High Jump (John Tarbet Senior Athletic Championships), S. Thanuja with 3.00 m in Pole Vault (reportedly the best performance by a schoolgirl), Amali Wijesinghe with 14.5 secs in 100 m hurdles and T. Anusha with 41.72 m in Discus Throw at the Junior Nationals and Nayomika Jayathkilaka a new 400 meter hurdles record at the Womens Championships.

Eight of Janashakthi’s sponsored athletes came first in their respective events at the recent Junior National Athletics Championships where Pabasara Senanayake (St. Joseph’s Girls’ School, Kegalle) was declared the Best U20 Female Athlete having emerged winner in her 100m and 200m events.

Ishara Dayananda (Ferguson Girls’ High School, Ratnapura) came 1st in the 100m hurdles event while Nayomika Gimhani Jayatilleke (Sumana Balika Vidyalaya, Ratnapura) emerged 1st in the 400 hurdles event.

At the same championships first places were clinched by S. Thanuja (Arunodaya College, Alaveddy, Jaffna) in U-20 pole vault, Amali Wijesinghe in U-23 100m hurdles, and T. Balakumar in U-20 pole vault. Amali Wijesinghe was also declared the ‘Best Hurdler of the Meet’.

Chamika Jayamini (Sumana Balika Vidyalaya, Ratnapura) 1st in the U-20 1500 metres event and 2nd in the 800 meters event while T. Anusha emerged 1st and 2nd in the U-23 Discus Throw and Putt Shot events.

Parallely second places were secured by Medhani Wickramanayake (Sri Sanghamitta Balika National School Matale) and Hiruni Weerasekera (now employed by Janashakthi) in the U-16 100 metres and U-23 triple Jump events respectively.

Weeks prior to this, at the Sir John Tarbet Senior Athletic Championships Pabasara Senanayake claimed a double victory and was declared the “Best Athlete of the Meet” having emerged winner in her U-20 100m and 200m events.

At the same championships Ishara Dayananda and Nayomika Jayathilaka emerged winners in the U-20 100m and 400m hurdles events respectively.

Nimesha Siriwardena (Galenbidunuwewa Central College) came 1st in the High Jump event at the John Tarbet Senior Athletic Championships and has been chosen to represent Sri Lanka at the forthcoming Youth Commonwealth Games in September in England.

Meanwhile S. Thanuja came off with flying colours at the Senior National Championships clinching first place in both the U-20 High Jump and Pole Vault events.

Janashakthi’s sponsored athletes triumphed once again at last week’s Women’s Championships when Nayomika Jayathileke in addition to establishing a new meet record came 1st in the 400m Hurdles, 1st in the 100m Hurdles and 2nd in the 200m sprint in the under 20 category.

At the same event Pabasara Senanayake came 1st in the 100m and 200m and was adjudged the Best Under 20 Athlete while T. Anusha finished 2nd in the Discus Throw open event. Amali Wijesinghe was placed 1st in the 100m hurdles open event while Chamika Jayamini was placed 1st in the 800m and 1500m while in the under 20 category Hiruni Weerasekara came 2nd in the Triple Jump open event.

Said Co-ordinator of the Janashakthi Athletic Sponsorship Project, Bertal Pinto-Jayawardena, General Manager – Finance & Planning, “We are extremely happy with the consistent improvements and committed performance of these athletes. These are teenagers from the outstations who do not share the same privileges and facilities enjoyed by their counterparts in Colombo. As a responsible corporate citizen we’re thus very proud to sponsor these budding athletes and be instrumental in building up Sri Lanka’s future success in athletics. They have been enjoying outstanding and consistent performance since 2008 and have remained unbeaten in their age group. We have great expectations that they will reach greater heights in the years to come and enable the national flag to fly over international victory ceremonies honouring achievements of these teenagers.”

Janashakthi has always supported sports and sportsmen and women. Best known for its long association with cricket, it has sponsored several Sri Lankan test cricket series during the past few years. Its current Brand Ambassador is national player Ajantha Mendis. Janashakthi also has on its staff the reigning South Asian Games High Jump Gold Medalist Priyangika Madumanthi.

Janashakthi has also, over the years, extended its support to several other sports at national level such as hockey, squash, sailing and golf thus reiterating its commitment to the long term development of sports in Sri Lanka.