Her time also bettered the South Asian record held by a South Asian woman in the marathon 2:34.43 seconds by India’s O.P.Jaisha in the 2015 IAAF World Championship. The marathon commenced at 1.00 pm SL time, with Hiruni aiming to approximate her own National record of 2:36.35 to qualify for the world championship which she did in emphatic fashion, shaving off 2 minutes 25 seconds off her earlier best timing.
The marathon attracted 20,000 runners from around the world competing for glory in the German city of Dusseldorf. Hiruni started the year clocking the second fastest half marathon time by a Sri Lankan female runner when she finished third in the Mesa-Phoenix half marathon held in Arizona, USA earlier this year. She is the Sri Lankan record holder of both the marathon and half marathon and represented Sri Lanka at the IAAF World Championship 2017, Commonwealth Games 2018 and Asian Games 2018. She has now qualified for the forthcoming IAAF World Championship 2019 and will be aiming to compete in the 2020 Tokyo Olympics.