Fifteen-year-old athlete Shalika Santhush Weerasinghe covered himself in glory by winning the 100 meters and 200 meters gold at the International Sports Games of Children of Asia in Russia. Termed the mini Olympics for emerging new talents the competition saw the participation of young sportspersons from 45 countries in different disciplines.
Weerasinghe is the only gold medal winner among the athletes from Sri Lanka. He also bagged a silver medal in the 4×100 meters relay. His timings were 11.20 secs for 100 meters, 22.86 secs in the semi-finals and 22.97 secs in the finals of the 200 meters. Early in the year Weerasinghe set a new record of 22.56 secs for the 200 meters (under 16) at the Junior Nationals games.
At the recently concluded All-Island schools relay carnival in Bogambara, Kandy, he was a key member of the all-conquering Benedictine under 17 relay team helping them to win the overall championship beating home favourites Trinity College and Walala A Ratnayake Sports School to second and third positions respectively.
Weerasinghe is trained and guided by Bens head coach I D Premasiri and Amila Prasanna, Ben’s master-in-charge of athletics Nuwan Abeywickrama and sports co-ordinator Rev Bro Pravin Vaz FSC.