From Seruwavila to the Olympic Semi Finals

Did you know that there are only two South Asian Men's 400m runners who have ever completed an entire lap in under 45 seconds? The first was Sugath Tillakaratne, our present Deputy Sports Minister, and the other is Aruna Darshana who celebrates his 26th birthday today!

A Talent from Seruwavila

Born on this day in the remote village of Trincomalee, Sinhapurage Aruna Darshana was born to a family whose livelihood depended on Paddy farming. His father passed away while he was still schooling but with the guidance of his father figure and coach Asanka Rajakaruna, he was able to achieve sporting greatness.

In fact, he was transferred to Weerakeppetipola National School from his hometown school Dehiwatta Maha Vidyalaya with the recommendation of his school teacher who insisted the authorities that this boy be granted better facilities, and his twin brother who is a Javelin Thrower, also joined with him.

Aruna Darshana with his twin brother on the right and Coach Asanka on the left

The Game-changing year of 2018

The year 2018 was a prominent one for Aruna Darshana as not only did he finish in 1st place in every national age group event he participated was part of the Sri Lankan contingent at the Asian Junior Championship in Gifu, U20 World Championship in Tampere and the Asian Games in Jakarta.

It was in Gifu where he savoured a podium finish for the first time outside of Sri Lanka, a Golden moment for the boy who won in both the 400m and 4x400m relay. This was his second international race since 2016 (4x400m relay) where he broke the 46 second barrier and one that enabled him to take part in the bigger events that followed. A bright future was awaiting the young athlete and was tipped to become the next 'Sugath Tillakaratne.'

Ananda College Team Photo 1980 (Brendon Kuruppu seated 3rd from the left)

Struggling to find his mark

Having joined the Sri Lanka Army to continue his sporting career beyond school, he was also part of the World Military Games in 2019 where he qualified for the final and won the Gold medal at the 2019 South Asian Games. However, it took him a few more years to break his personal best timing from 2018. He never ran under 46 seconds until he ran in the 2023 Army Athletics Championship.

From this point onwards, he only got better with every race, finally breaking his personal best timing in Japan and the World Continental races before the big events. He participated in the World Athletics Championship, Asian Athletics Championship and the Asian Games, finishing on the podium in the relays.

The Olympic Dream, dashed and finally achieved

Despite being part of a successful relay quartet, their dream to participate in the Olympic Qualifiers in the Bahamas was dashed with a VISA delay and other issues.

However, Aruna had the most unusual luck from the group as he was the closest to qualify as a 'next best athlete' in the World Rankings and finally got the chance to participate in the Olympics after a few athletes were not able to participate, the final member of the small contingent of 6 after the names were finalised. After 20 years, a Sri Lankan was set to run in the 400m at the Olympics.

With this lucky chance, he went on to do something remarkable. On the purple tracks in Stade de France, he broke the 45 second barrier and qualified to the 400m Semi Finals with a 3rd place finish. He finally joined the same league as Sugath Tillakaratne as a South Asian 400m Sprinter with a timing of 44.99 seconds. Unfortunately, he was disqualified by a lane infringement in the Semi Finals and his 44.75 second timing was not considered as a new personal best.

Aruna Darshana on the brink of breaking his personal best in the 400m Olympic Heats

But for a boy who nearly lost the opportunity to compete in the Olympics as the Relay team faced VISA issues and had to wait till the final list was updated after the qualification deadline, his journey so far is a testament of hard work and determination, much like to how Anjana Kaluaarachchi (a prominent journalist in Athletics and to whom a special thanks goes to for his article) compared him to beinf the real life enactment of 'Mudalihami' from the book 'Meter 100.'

Here's to wishing Aruna on his 26th birthday and for a bright future ahead!