Ranatunga clocked an impressive 14.22 seconds, the identical time returned by the winner Anousone Xaysa of Laos to settle for silver.
The athlete coached by Thiron Gamage was the leading Sri Lankan hurdler this year winning both the first (14.53 secs) and second selection trials (14.40 secs) held prior to the Asian Athletics Championships. Ranatunga was a high jumper when he represented Kularatne MV, Godakawela at school level.He came to prominence when he shattered a long held schools record of National record holder Manjula Kumara as a 17-year-old in 2014.
A year later Ranatunga won silver medals in high jump at the Asian Youth Championship (2015) and Commonwealth Youth Games Later he shifted to hurdles after a bio mechanical analysis done overseas found him more suited for hurdles and horizontal jumps.
With the SLEME athlete’s efforts Sri Lanka concluded the four-day event with four medals. While Shyama Dulani won gold in the women’s 400 metres hurdles on Monday, Sarangi Silva in the women’s long jump and Asanka Ratnayake in the men’s 400 metres won bronze medals on the same day.