Archives

by Dinesh Weerawansa

Sri Lanka's dominance in men's 400m was evident when all three competitors of the semi-final heats - Sugath Tillakaratne, Rohan Pradeep Kumara and Prasanna Amarasekera qualified to run in today's final, scheduled for 6.20 p.m.

The Lankan trio, who ran in three different heats yesterday, made direct entries to the final by finishing either first or second. Amarasekera, who ran in the first heat, finished second (47.60) to Alshammari Fawzi of Kuwait (47.20), the man who is bound to throw out the best challenge to Sri Lanka's quest for a gold medal.

The toughest of the three semi-final heats was the second one, in which last Asian championship gold medallist Rohan Pradeep Kumara finished second, returning a timing of 45.91 seconds, the second best timing amongst all 20 competitors who took part in the event. Kumara finished behind Saudi Arabian Al Bishi Hamdan (45.82), who is another hot favourite.

Tillakaratne, the current championship record holder, won the semi-final heat three, clocking 46.90 seconds. "It was a good race, but the things are sure to get tight in the final. I will make every effort to do well and make my country proud," Tillakaratne said after his victory.

Rohan Pradeep said he is happy with the early form shown in his heat. "It was the toughest of the three semi finals. You can see that as four of the seven who took part in the heat have made it to the final. I expect and tough race tomorrow but am ready to run my heart out," he said.

But it was completely other side of the story in the women's 400m, which badly missed the Asian Games gold medallist Damayanthi Darsha, who pulled out a week ago due to a hamstring injury. In her absence, two Sri Lankans who took part in the semi-final heats failed to qualify for the final. K. L. L. Gunawardena narrowly found a place in the last eight to run in today's final at 6 p.m. Menike Wickremasinghe and Swarnamali Edirisinghe found it too tough in painting a poor picture in the semis. Wickremasinghe clocked 56.46 seconds to finish fifth in the first semi final, won by Kazakhstan's Roslanova Tatyana (52.62). Gunawardena (56.00) and Edirisinghe (56.95) could finish only fourth and fifth respectively, but the former qualified on the two best fastest timings after the top three in each heat made direct entries.

Asian record

In the morning session, China's Gu Yuan accounted for the first gold medal with two new Asian records in the women's hammer throw. The very first event of the meet produced a new Asian championship record and a new Asian continental record. Yuan cleared 71.10m to better her own Asian Championship record of 61.86m in Fukuoka, 1998 by nearly ten metres and also erased her fellow countrywoman Ying Hui Liu's Asian continental record of 68.06 established in Shanghai last May.

The Chinese lass started first of her attempts at 65.42 and went on to both records in her third attempt, which was 70.92. Then she slightly bettered that with 71.10m in the fourth before dropping short at 67.85 in the fifth. Yuan finished well ahead of her closest rival Hung Chih Feng of Taipei, who registered 58.19m to secure the silver medal while the bronze went to Indian Kaur Hardeep (57.82m). Sri Lanka did not take part in this event, which attracted only six entries.

Thamara Dissanayake, the first Sri Lankan athlete to be seen in action at the championship made an inauspicious start as she finished last in the first heat of women's heptathlon first event - 100m hurdles. She gained just 819 points in finishing fifth and last with a timing of 15.17 seconds. China's Shi Wei won the first heat clocking 14.13 seconds to gain 960 points, 19 more than Indian Biswas Soma, who won the heat 2 with a timing of 14.27. Two other Sri Lankans who took part in this event finished a poor last two berths in heat two - Viyanka Welpahala (17.33) and D. C. A. Dahanayake (18.11).

The three Sri Lankan women's heptathlon competitors continued their poor form in the second event too - high jump - Thamara Dissanayake (8th with 1.53m), D. C. A. Dahanayake (ninth with 1.50m) and Viyanka Welpahala, being unsuccessful.

Star sprinter Susanthika Jayasinghe kept Sri Lanka's gold medal hopes alive by finishing first in the women's 100m semi final last evening to qualify for today's final, along with her team mate Pradeepa Herath. Jayasinghe clocked the best timing among all semi finalists - 11.40 to win her race. Herath (12.02) finished third in the second semi final, which was won by Uzbekistan's Khubbieva Guzel (11.68). But the third Sri Lankan competing in the event - Sriyani Kulawansa, was eliminated after finishing fifth in semi final 1 with a timing of 12.13.

SAF Games gold medallist Chinthaka de Soysa had a close call in men's 100m first round heats in narrowly qualifying to compete in the semi finals. He clocked 10.78 seconds in finishing fourth in the heat one, but made it to the next round by having one of the four fastest timings among those who failed to make direct entry to semis. This heat one was won by Saudi Arabia's Al Yami Salem (10.55) while his team mate Al Safaar Jamal (10.59) won the heat three. The heat two was won by Kazakhstan's Chemovol Gennadly (10.59). Sri Lanka's K.Suminda Mendis (fifth in heat one with 10.82) too advanced to the semis while his team mate Ravindra Kumara was nowhere near his beat in finishing last (8) in heat 3 (11.76).

China also won its second gold medal to show early dominance while India continued its good form in recent Commonwealth Games to win four medals. Li Yanfeng cleared 60.06 to win the gold in women's discus throw while Indians Kaur Harwant and Kaur Swaramjit won the silver and bronze medals respectively. Qatar dominated in men's 10,000m winning gold and silver - H.Ahamed Ibrahim (30 mts, 31.5 seconds) and Ahamed A. Majid (30:33.5) respectively. Sri Lanka's Anuruddha Indrajith Cooray narrowly missed a medal in finishing fourth with 31:15.1 while his team mates R.M.Y.G.N Bandara (31:18.6) and A.M.A.Bandara (31.34.4) finished fifth and sixth respectively.

Medals standings - Day 1

Country                  Gold      Silver    Bronze

China                         2            0           0
Qatar                         1            1           0
India                          0            1           3

News | Business | Features | Editorial | Security
Politics | World | Letters | Sports | Obituaries |

Produced by Lake House
Copyright 2001 The Associated Newspapers of Ceylon Ltd.
Comments and suggestions to :Web Manager