Tarushi Karunaratne, who take part in the preliminary round of 800 meters at the Paris Olympic Games, finished the race with a time of 2:07.76 minutes and did not meet the requirements directly for the semi-finals. Due to this situation, Asian gold medalist Tarushi Karunaratne’s Paris Olympic run came to an end.
The 19-year-old Tarushi had a personal best of 2:00.66 minutes, but was incapable to surpass it, so she sadly withdrew from the competition.
After the race, Tarushi with tears in her eyes said ‘I’m sorry… I couldn’t do something impressive. “I’m sorry.” In the first round, including Tarushi, who finished 45th out of a total of 50 athletes, 30 athletes who were rejected from that round competed in the ‘repackage round’, where Tarushi finished 27th. Tisige Dugma of Ethiopia set the best performance in the 800m preliminary round in 1:57.90 minutes. Regarding Tarushi’s retreat, Coach Susantha Fernando also said that Tarushi’s usual running rhythm was broken in the first 200 meters. “Tarushi usually runs the first 200 meters in 28 seconds and 400 meters in 58 seconds. But in the Paris race, Tarushi ran the first 200 meters in 26 seconds. When that happens, the running rhythm is completely broken. The best athletes in the world were in the competition, so they went fast from the start. Tarushi had to hang with them and run. In that case, the beginning time increases and the rhythm break at the end. She derived thinking to do something big. But everything changed,” Fernando said.
In the history of Sri Lankan athletics, not a single athlete has completed the women’s 800m event in less than two minutes. Sriyani Dhammika Menike in 1992 and Nimali Liyanarachchi in 2020 were eliminated from the preliminary round despite representing the Olympics in this event.
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