(LANKAPUVATH | COLOMBO) – Sri Lankan athlete Tharushi Karunarathna clinched the Gold medal in the Women’s 800m event at the 19th Asian Games Hangzhou, China.
The 19-year-old clocked a time of 2.03.20 minutes to clinch the Gold medal in the women’s 800m event at the 2023 Asian Games.
Accordingly, Karunarathna created history for Sri Lanka with the first athletics gold since 2002 for the country.
Earlier, the Sri Lankan sprinter also set an Asian record and a national record at the 2023 Asian Athletics Championship held in Bangkok, Thailand, finishing the event with a time of 2:00:06 minutes.
Karunarathna holds the record for both 400m and 800m events at the All-Island School Games 2019 while being the Gold medalist for both events. She also holds the record for the 800m at the Sir John Tarbot Senior Championships 2019 and is the Gold medalist for both the 400m and 800m events. She was awarded the best female athlete under 16 at the provincial meet in 2019.