Lankan marathon runner Cooray gunning for Olympic glory with diet of 'a pasty per day'

London, July 25(ANI): Sri Lankan marathon runner Anuradha Cooray is gunning for glory at the London Olympics, and revealed the secret to his training i.e. a daily pasty fix.

Cooray, who is a full-time employee of Greggs The Bakers in Buckinghamshire, trains for his marathon dash by running 17 miles to and from his work every day, and eating a pasty when he gets there.

As a marathon runner, Cooray must consume between 5,000 and 6,000 calories a day, and he chooses to do most of his eating while at work.

Cooray admits to loving Greggs' food, confessing that he eats food at his workplace thrice a day.

A bacon breakfast roll for breakfast, a Mexican chicken baguette for lunch, and either a chicken curry pasty or a 'spicy one' pasty for dinner are part of his daily calorie intake.

"The pasties definitely help me train. I can't eat enough. I'm from Sri Lanka and I love spicy food - the chicken curry pasty and the 'spicy one' are perfect for me," The Daily Mail quoted Cooray, as saying.

To assist him with his training, the runner's employers gave him four weeks of special paid leave, to enable him to take his training up to over 90 miles a week.

Cooray won gold medal at the South Asian Games in Pakistan in 2004 with a personal best of 2hrs 16mins. He automatically qualified for the Olympics in April when he finished the London Marathon within 10 seconds of the qualifying standard.

Cooray was the third Brit to finish the race, and was overall placed 22nd. (ANI)