Sri Lanka’s GROE runners Ishan Kumara Wijethilaka and Manjula Kumarasinghe told ‘The Island’ that the unexpected conducive climatic conditions in Hong Kong would help them run to their potential at the crucial final leg of the Standard Chartered Greatest Race on Earth Series here in Hong Kong today.

The athletes said this after a press conference for elite athletes at the Kimberly Hotel, yesterday.

"We expected the temperature to be much lower than what we are experiencing now in Hong Kong. The temperature that prevails now will do us good. In fact, we feel that we could run to our potential in tomorrow’s (8) marathon if this condition prevails," said Wijethilaka, who has a chance of producing the best time in the South and Southeastern Region.

Kumra said he would take this conducive climatic condition as a blessing to beat the athlete from Thailand, who is two minutes ahead of Sri Lanka after the first three legs in Nairobi, Singapore and Mumbai.

""My prime target tomorrow (8), would be to beat the Thailand runner by two minutes which will help us retain the runner-up position we won last year," said Wijethilaka, who produced the fastest time of the South Asia region in the Nairobi leg in the last series.

Wijethilaka will face tough competition from Thailand’s Boonthung Srisung who is expecting to run below 2.25 hours and India’s 25-year-old Angad Kumar (India are the leading team in the region), who has run a personal best of 2.19 hours, recently. Both Srisung and Kumar told ‘The Island’ that they were expecting to produce their personal best in today’s marathon.

Sri Lanka women’s team member Manjula Kumarasinghe also said that she was impressed by the unexpected conducive weather and said that she would do her best not to allow lower placed teams over take her. "I was taken up by the conducive weather. We expected temperatures to be lower than this. I think present the condition is very good for running. I beleive we can do well. I will do my best to keep the team’s present position on track," said Kumarasinghe.

With the region’s leading team Indonesia having a lead of over 20 minutes over second placed Sri Lanka, Kumarasinghe said that the best for her team now would be to fight to keep the present position intack.

Meanwhile, Jayantha Siyamudali, the team principal of Sri Lanka said that he is expecting the Sri Lankan runners to come up with flying colours in today’s marathon. "Ishan Kumara has done well in competitive international marathons. I expect him to run below 2.25 minutes and I think Kumarasinghe also will do well," said Siyamudali after observing a practice session last morning. He was optimistic that the Sri Lankan teams (men and women) would take home at least the runner-up position in the region.