Our Olympic marathon runner is on top form and has broken his PB for his event at the age of 36! Competing for Sri Lanka at the Asian Games in Incheon South Korean, Cooray was up against some tough competition. He put in a fantastic performance to finish in 6th place in a new PB 2:15:51 running what one sports journalist described as a ‘near perfect’ race. The time also breaks his own National Record of 2:16:38 which he set in 2004 at the Athens Olympics.
This time means that Cooray qualifies for the IAAF World Championships to be held in Beijing next year, and is more than 2 minutes inside the Olympic Committee qualifying time of 2:18:00 but unfortunately it is too early for the performance to count for a place in Rio. Anuradha said “I am so happy with my race; I was determined to run under 2 hours 16 minutes and I know there is more to come.”
Before travelling to the games, Cooray had spent five weeks training in Kenya. He was sponsored by his employer, Greggs the Bakers, to travel to The Lornah Kiplagat High Altitude Training Centre at Iten, Kenya. “The Centre is the Home of Champions; being there gave me the opportunity to train amongst the best in the sport. It was incredibly hard work, but worth every minute and I met some fantastic athletes. I want to run in Rio and have to thank Greggs for helping me to pursue my dream.”
