Sri Lanka’s 2004 Athens Olympic participant, Anuradha Indrajith Cooray has achieved Commonwealth Games qualifying standards by finishing the reputed London Marathon in a creditable 2 hours 21 minutes and 02 seconds.

Cooray taking part in a competitive athletic event after nearly four years finished 22nd in London on Sunday which is now considered the second fastest marathon in the world.

"I was thrilled to find that I could run to the time I was doing some four years ago. I had not taken part in a marathon for four years before I took part in the London Marathon," Cooray told ‘The Island’ speaking from London on Monday.

Cooray’s time of 2 hours 21.02 is a minute ahead of the qualifying standard set for the Delhi Commonwealth Games which will be held in 2010 in India.

The qualifying standard for the Delhi Commonwealth Games is set at 2 hours 22 minutes and 14 seconds for men’s marathons and incidentally the qualifying period for the Games started on April 25.

"I wanted to see whether I could achieve World Championship standards. I wanted to run below 2 hours and 18 minutes. But I missed it as I ran too fast in the first 20 kilometres," Cooray regretted.

"Since I had not taken part in any events for the last four years I couldn’t manage my run properly," Cooray said.

The 31-year-old athlete left for England after taking part in the Athens Olympics in 2004 and is a SAF Games Gold medalist.

Cooray achieved his personal best of two hours 16 minutes and 38 seconds in the SAF Games held in Islamabad in 2004 (Gold) and it was the best Marathon performance in SA Games by a Sri Lankan.

Cooray said that he had very little time to practice as he works for a firm there but was happy that he could comeback to his form after he started training seven months ago.

"I started training seven months ago. I joined a good club here and have got a good coach to train with. I don’t have much time for training. But I am happy about my progress in such a short period," said Cooray.

Cooray said that he is looking forward to coming to Sri Lanka and representing the country at the Commonwealth Games.