Hiruni Wijayaratne, Sri Lanka’s lone representative at the 17th IAAF World Athletics Championships scheduled to be held from September 27 to October 6 in Doha, Qatar, will be aiming to run smart in the harsh and barren environment in the Middle Eastern desert nation in a bid to qualify for the 2020 Tokyo Olympics.
The women’s marathon is scheduled to begin at 2.29 a.m. (Sri Lanka time) on Saturday, the final event on the first day of the championship in Doha. Hiruni qualified for the event after winning a silver at the Dusseldorf marathon clocking 2:34.10 while renewing her National record and setting a new South Asian record.
“Since I returned home after the Nationals, I have focussed on very marathon specific work. Prior to the last encounter in Colombo, I was focussed on the National championship and having a good performance there. But since I returned home to the US, I have been running a lot of kilometres, sometimes almost 200 kilometres a week while focusing on marathon pace and marathon strategy specific training,” said Hiruni in an interview with the Daily News.
“Also I know it’s going to be very warm in Doha. I think the expected temperatures is about 35 degrees Celsius. So I have been doing some heat related preparations so that I am acclimated to the harsh conditions in Doha,” said Hiruni who arrived in Doha yesterday morning after a 26-hour flight with a stopover in London.
Hiruni is overwhelmed with pride at being Sri Lanka’s representative but is realistic about her targets in the marathon.
“As the only athlete in Sri Lanka athletics to participate in this year's world championships my main goal and my own goal is to perform as well as possible on the international stage. As I mentioned before, I know that the weather is not going to be conducive to running a fast time. I don’t think anybody will be there to run a fast time especially in an event like the marathon where you are out there for more than two hours in the heat,” said Hiruni, 28, a dual Sri Lanka-American citizen who has her roots firmly grounded in her country of birth despite being based in Boulder, Colorado where she works for a technology company.
“So my goal is to be as competitive as possible. If you finish among top 10 in marathon field it is an automatic qualification for the Tokyo Olympics. If you finish in the top 20 in the field, then you get points to add towards your world rankings so that you have a very good opportunity to be in the Tokyo Olympics. So those are my two main targets,” she said.
“There will be other opportunities for me to run a fast time to renew the national record. Those are all things in my radar and my aspirations. But as an athlete and as an intelligent competitor, it’s my job to respect the conditions that I will be walking into, and to be prepared mentally and physically to compete,” said Hiruni, who has a Masters in Business Administration and a Bachelor’s degree in Marketing.
“I hope that the people of Sri Lanka and my supporters and my friends and family will be part of my achievements regardless of what I do. But most importantly, I want to be part of myself because I want to know that I gave it a 110 per cent, to give forth my best performance on that day,” said the former student of St. Bridget’s Convent.
“I do feel some pressure to perform well in Doha. As the only athlete I think it’s a great responsibility, a wonderful responsibility bestowed upon my shoulders to make our nation proud. I am very grateful for the opportunity to be there. And ofcourse I have dreamt about performing well and lifting the Sri Lankan flag high above my shoulders after a very good performance which will hopefully have qualified me for the Olympics,” she said.
“But even if that’s not the case, me just being there and for people of Sri Lanka to have an athlete representing our motherland in myself, I think is a great achievement. I am very grateful for the opportunity to be in Doha and am very grateful for the support that I have received from Sri Lankans near and far to continue to succeed in my athletic career,” said Hiruni.
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