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Tharushi Karunarathna
Dissanayaka Mudiyanselage Tharushi Dilsara Karunaratne (born 18 November 2004) is a Sri Lankan middle-distance runner who competes mainly in the 800 metres. She won a gold medal at the 2023 Asian Athletics Championships held in Bangkok in the 400m women's event and also the broke the 25 year old Asian record in the event.[1] Based on her world ranking, Tharushi has qualified for the 800m women's event at the 2024 Summer Olympics.[2][3][4] In October 2023, she took part at the 2022 Asian Games and claimed gold medal in the women's 800 m final at the age of 19 and became the first Sri Lankan since Susanthika Jayasinghe and Damayanthi Dharsha to clinch Asian Games gold medal for Sri Lanka.[5][6] CareerTharushi competed in the 100m and 200m events at her rural school's Inter-House Meet after her first coach, Pushpa Kumudini, noticed her talent. Later, she excelled at circuit meets. Her abilities blossomed when she attended A. Rathnayake Central in Walala on a sports scholarship and was a member of the 4 × 400 m relay team that won the All-Island School Games in a record time in 2018. Her first significant individual accomplishment was a bronze medal in the 800m at the Junior Nationals that year.[7] Tharushi won the All-Island School Games in 2020, at the age of 15, after setting new records in the 400m and 800m races in the Under-16 Girls category. She ran personal bests of 56.54 seconds in the 400m and 2 minutes 14.00 seconds in the 800m, both of which were faster than the winners in the older age groups. In 2019, she also set a new 800m record of 2:17.00 at the Sir John Tarbat Meet.[8] In June 2023, she won gold in the 800m women's race at the Asian Under 20 Junior Athletic Championships in Yecheon, South Korea.[9] She also won silver in 400m and gold in 4 × 400 m mixed relay.[10] In the 2023 Asian Athletics Championships, Tharushi recorded a time of 2:00:06 to win gold in the women's 800m race and also set a new Asian record.[11] She made her Asian Games debut by representing Sri Lanka at the 2022 Asian Games and competed in the women's 800m event. She eventually emerged as the ultimate winner of the competition after completing her run at 2:03.20 minutes. It marked the first instance for Sri Lanka since 2002 (after 21 years) to win a gold medal in Asian Games Athletics event.[12] She also eventually set a new national record in women's 800m event during the course of the event. She was also part of the women's 400m relay team which secured bronze medal in 4 × 400 metres event at 2022 Asian Games by finishing at 3:30.88 minutes.[13] References
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