Nilani Ratnayake also spelt as Nilani Rathnayake or Nilani Rathnayaka (born 8 August 1990) is a Sri Lankan steeplechaser. She is the first and only Sri Lankan female steeplechase runner ever in history to have completed running the 3000 meters steeplechase in less than under 10 minutes. She is currently attached with the Sri Lanka Army.

Career

She claimed her maiden national title at the 2013 National Athletic Championships. She also then broke the national record in women's steeplechase discipline at the 2013 National Championship. However the national record was eventually surpassed by Eranga Dulakshi in 2014 when Dulakshi claimed the 2014 Sri Lanka Athletic Championship which was also the only time Nilani couldn't win the title. She has notably improved upon the national record in women's steeplechase event at least on four occasions since 2015. She won National Athletic Championships in the discipline of steeplechase nine times (2013, 2015, 2016, 2017, 2018, 2019, 2020, 2021 and 2022) and the only time she missed out on winning the national title between the time frame 2013 and 2022 was in 2014. She maintained her unbeaten streak at National Athletic Championship from 2015 to 2022 winning the national titles on eight consecutive occasions. She achieved running steeplechase event in less than 10 minutes for the first time way back in 2018 with a timing of 9:46.76 seconds when she went onto claim the 2018 Athletic National Championships. She also represented

Sri Lanka at the 2018 Asian Games Sri Lanka participated at the 2018 Asian Games in Jakarta and Palembang, Indonesia from 18 August to 2 September 2018. The Sri Lankan team was scheduled to consist of 185 athletes (138 men and 47 women), marking the large contingent the country h ...

and it also marked her debut appearance at the

Asian Games The Asian Games, also known as Asiad, is a continental multi-sport event held every four years among athletes from all over Asia. The Games were regulated by the Asian Games Federation (AGF) from the first Games in New Delhi, India, until t ...

. During the

2018 Asian Games The 2018 Asian Games ( id, Pesta Olahraga Asia 2018 or ''Asian Games 2018''), officially known as the 18th Asian Games and also known as Jakarta-Palembang 2018 or Indonesia 2018, was a Asia, continental multi-sport event that was held from 18 A ...

, she finished sixth with a timing of 9:54.65 seconds in the women's 3000 metres final. One of her top notch performances came at the

2019 Asian Athletics Championships The 2019 Asian Athletics Championships was the 23rd edition of the Asian Athletics Championships. It was held from 21 to 24 April 2019 at the Khalifa International Stadium in Doha, Qatar. During the closing ceremony of the 22nd Asian Athletics Cham ...

in Doha when she nearly put up a medal winning performance after securing a berth in the women's 3000m steeplechase final. However, she failed to claim the medal after tumbling at the final barrier and managed to finish only outside the stadium. She narrowly missed out on qualifying for the

2020 Summer Olympics The , officially the and also known as , was an international multi-sport event held from 23 July to 8 August 2021 in Tokyo, Japan, with some preliminary events that began on 21 July. Tokyo was selected as the host city during the ...

owing to lack of quality competitions and lack of support from officials. It was revealed that Nimali Liyanaarachchi qualified to Tokyo Olympics as a wild card entrant granted by World Athletics only after Nilani Ratnayake had failed to qualify for the 2020 Olympics in the women's 3000m steeplechase. Nilani by the time had ranked 46th globally in the Road to Olympic Rankings and thus missing out on an Olympic qualification by the barest of all margins. She was also one of the athletes among the Sri Lankan contingent to have participated at the 60th National Inter-State Athletics Championships in New Delhi, India as part of the preparations prior to the 2020 Olympics. In April 2022, she improved her own national record in the women's 3000m steeplechase with a timing of 9:40.24 seconds when she claimed her ninth career national title in the women's 3000m steeplechase event. On 26 April 2022, the Athletics Association of Sri Lanka named her in the team of eight athletes for the

2022 Commonwealth Games The 2022 Commonwealth Games, officially known as the XXII Commonwealth Games and commonly known as Birmingham 2022, was an international multi-sport event for members of the Commonwealth of Nations that took place in Birmingham, England bet ...

and it also marks her maiden Commonwealth Games appearance. She was selected by Sri Lanka Athletics as one of the track and field athletes to represent

Sri Lanka at the 2022 Commonwealth Games Sri Lanka competed at the 2022 Commonwealth Games in Birmingham, England from 28 July to 8 August 2022. This was Sri Lanka's 17th appearance at the Commonwealth Games. On June 30, 2022 the National Olympic Committee of Sri Lanka announced a team ...

as she was eligible for selection based on her performances at the 100th National Athletic Championships which was held in April 2022 where she claimed the national title in the women's 3000m steeplechase event. The 100th National Athletic Championships served as the final trials to select the Sri Lankan contingent for both the

and

2022 Asian Games The 2022 Asian Games (), officially known as the 19th Asian Games (), also known as Hangzhou 2022, ( zh, c=杭州2022, p=Hángzhōu Èr líng èr èr), will be a multi-sport event celebrated in Hangzhou, Zhejiang, China. Hangzhou will be the t ...

with the latter had to be indefinitely postponed due to COVID-19 concerns in China. She represented Sri Lanka at the 2022 World Athletics Championships and competed in the women's 3000m steeplechase. She also became the first ever Sri Lankan steeplechaser ever to compete at a World Athletics Championship event and it also marked her debut appearance at the World Athletics Championship. Her participation along with

Gayanthika Abeyratne Gayanthika Artigala Thushari Abeyratne (born 23 December 1986) is a Sri Lankan middle-distance runner who established a national record time at 800m. Career She won a gold medal at the 2017 Asian Indoor and Martial Arts Games and silver at the ...

and

Yupun Abeykoon Abeykoon Mudiyansalage Yupun Priyadarshana, known as Yupun Abeykoon, also referred to as Yupun Priyadarshana (born 31 December 1994) is a Sri Lankan track and field athlete and a national record holder in men's 100m, men's 200m and in men's ind ...

for the 2022 World Athletic Championship was clouded with uncertainties owing to delays in obtaining US visas in order to participate at the competition. She secured 13th spot in the heats with a timing of 9:54.10 seconds and thus failed to progress to the next round.

References

External links

* {{DEFAULTSORT:Ratnayake, Nilani Sri Lankan female middle-distance runners 1990 births Living people Athletes (track and field) at the 2018 Asian Games South Asian Games bronze medalists for Sri Lanka Asian Games competitors for Sri Lanka South Asian Games medalists in athletics 21st-century Sri Lankan women 21st-century Sri Lankan people Place of birth missing (living people)