27-year-old finishes eighth in Sunday’s Houston Marathon
Sri Lankan-born marathon runner Hiruni Wijayaratne who is living in the US finished eighth in the Houston Marathon last Sunday clocking an astonishing 2 hours, 36 minutes and 35 seconds.
She renewed her personal best by about seven minutes breaking the Sri Lankan record by almost four minutes. The national record of 2:40:07 was set by Geethani Rajasekera in 2015. Geethani was the first female athlete to represent Sri Lanka at the Olympics in long distance running and in 2016 Summer games she finished 129th out of a field of 157.
“FOLLOW-UP: On November 3, 2018 Hiruni won the second place of the 30-km women’s marathon in Monumental Marathon of Indianapolis in US clocking 2 hours, 38 minutes and 34 seconds. Though she was unsuccessful in the last Olympics Hiruni has not still given up her dream of winning a medal for Sri Lanka. We wish her all the success”
Hiruni’s latest feat in Houston also made her the first Sri Lankan athlete to achieve the qualification standards for the Commonwealth Games which will be held this year. This is also an opportunity for Hiruni to represent Sri Lanka at this year’s Asian games.
Hiruni who was born in Sri Lanka on December 5, 1990 came to the US when she was nine years old and graduated from the University of Kentucky in 2014 with an MBA. She had her primary education at Colombo St. Bridget’s Convent and holds nine Sri Lankan national records on road and track events. She is qualified to compete for her birth country as she holds dual citizenship and she can be our best hope to win an Olympic gold for the nation.
Hiruni has been competing from 2013 and taken part in a large number of events such as 800, 1500, 5000 and 10,000m all over the US. She represented Sri Lanka in 2017 London marathon and the World Championships in the same year. Hiruni qualified for the London World Athletic Championship by clocking 02:43:31 minutes in the Eugene Marathon race in America last year. Hiruni, was the 11th among 100 athletes but failed to finish the London marathon.
In her profile Hiruni mentions Virginia as her hometown but refers to Colombo as her real ‘hometown’.
Speaking to Sunday Times S.B. Pathiravithana in 2014, Hiruni said her first race was in St. Bridget’s uniform when she was eight years old. “Once my family moved to the USA, I began running again for my High School. This was when I started to run longer distance races. I had a lot of success and earned a full scholarship to the University of Kentucky”.
She said her dad Punu Wijayaratne ran while he was a student at Royal College from 1977-1983. “His running genetics must have gotten passed to me”. She added that marathon training is very difficult and she runs between 85-100 miles every week, which takes a lot of discipline.
“My parents have supported me in many ways throughout my entire athletics career. They are my biggest fans whether I win or lose. My mom and dad have also requested help from many of their friends and family to get Sri Lanka’s attention with regards to my running achievements. Financially, running is an easy sport. The only expenses are for shoes and clothing’”
In her Facebook page the athlete mentions she is in a relationship with Luis Orta, a Venezuelan long distance runner. He competed in the men’s marathon event at the 2016 Summer Olympics. At last Sunday’s Houston Marathon, Orta set a new Venezuelan National Record at the Half Marathon clocking 1 hour 03:35 seconds.
Presently, Hiruni is training with Hudson Elite, a nonprofit group training athletes ‘to run faster from the track to the marathon’. It is functioning under the guidance of world class coach Brad Hudson. The group has trained nine athletes who qualified for the 2016 Olympic Marathon Trials. Their runners are in the top 10 USA championship finishes in half marathon, cross county, track and marathon. Hiruni’s current sponsors are makers of Brooks running shoes and Honey Stinger, producers of honey-based energy drinks, bars and chews.
