Olympic Archives

New Asian record for Sri Lanka’s Tharushi Karunarathna Source : newswire Sri Lankan athletes Tharushi Karunarathna and Kalinga Hewa Kumarage have secured top spots in the 2024 Reunión Internacional Villa de Bilbao – World Athletics Continental Tour underway in Spain. Participating in the 600M sprint event for women, Asian Games medallist Tharushi Karunarathna emerged second clocking a timing of 1:24.84. With her performance, Tharushi Karunarathna set a new Asian record and erased the continental record of 600 metres held by Ayano Shiomi of Japan. Meanwhile, Sri Lanka’s Kalinga Hewa Kumarage was placed third in the men’s 400-metre event with a timing of 45.91. The performances of both Sri Lankan athletes will boost their Olympic aspirations. (Newswire) Click here to receive your free copy of the eLanka Newsletter twice a week delivered directly to your inbox! ...

A Beautiful, Heart Warming Moment GEORGE BRAINE The two high jumpers, one from Qatar and the other from Italy, briefly speak with an official. The Qatari grins and nods to the Italian, who leaps on the Qatari, embracing him tightly, and spins around, wailing. He rolls on the ground, gets up and falls again. Sinking to his knees, he picks up a leg cast on which is written “Road to Tokyo”, lifts it to the sky, and screams. The Italian flag draped around him, he begins a mad run around the stadium. Meanwhile, the Qatari, more subdued but wiping a tear, walks over to his compatriots, who close protectively around him. What is going on? Why is the Italian athlete going crazy? I am in Japan, obsessively watching the Olympics on four local channels. All in Japanese, a language I don’t understand much. So, only when the English news reports ...