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| Saturday, 10 August 2002 |
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Lanka's golden day today by Dinesh Weerawansa Today could well be Sri Lanka's golden day at the X1Vth Asian Athletic Championship as the second day's events starts at Sugathadasa Stadium this morning. The much looked forward to gold medals for the hosts could well be decided as three of Sri Lanka's brightest medal prospective finals are on the cards for this evening - women's 100m final men's 400m final and 4x100m relay finals. Undoubtedly the star attraction at today's events will be Sydney Olympic medallist, Susanthika Jayasinghe who will be seen in action in women's 100m. Fresh after her season's best timing of 11.08 seconds in finishing fourth in women's 100m final at the recent Commonwealth Games in Manchester, Jayasinghe is looking forward to win her first ever gold medal at an international meet on home soil. All outstanding performance by Jayasinghe have been outside Sri Lanka as she has not got any chance in competing at home and the 2002 Asian Championship would help Jayasinghe to make her home dream a reality. Among Jayasinghe's feats overseas are bronze at 2000 Sydney Olympics, silver at 1997 Athens IAAF World championships, gold at 1995 Jakarta Asian Championships and a silver at 1994 Hiroshima Asian Games, all in her pet event. The semi finals of women's 100m will be worked off from 9.50 a.m. today with the final scheduled for 4.40 this evening. Today's order of events starts at 7 a.m. with men's 20 km walk final, followed by men's hammer throw final and men's long jump qualifying at 9 a.m. The first track event for the day will be women's 400m hurdles heats at 9 .am., in which Sri Lanka will field S. V. A. Kusumawathi, K. K. C. Priyadarshani, and M. A. Shamalee. Among the medal prospects here are Shon Yinglan (China), Torshina Natalya (Kazakhstan) and Yao Yuehua (China). Experienced Olympic hurdler Harijan Ratnayake, along with Ashok Kumar Jayasundara, and A. M. P. P. S. Adhikari will lead the Lankan challenge in men's 400m hurdles. Ratnayake has been Sri Lanka's best hurdler over the past years but here at the Asian Championship, he is going to face a gigantic task. With an entry timing of 50.81 seconds, Ratnayake should show a marked improvement if he is to strike a medal, against the challenge he is facing from the four hurdlers who are going under 49 - Al Nobi Mubarak Sultan (Qatar - 48.11), Meleshenko Yevgenly (Kazakhstan - 48.46), Chen Tien Wen (Taiwan - 48.63) and Chiba Yoshihi (Japan - 48.65). Today's competition schedule: Day two (August 10) 7 am - 20km walk men final, 9 am - Hammer throw men final, 9 am - Long jump men qualifying, 9 am - 400m hurdles women heats, 9.20 am - 400m hurdles men heats, 9.50 am - 100m women semi-final, 10.10 am - 100m men semi-final, 10.30 am - 1,500m men heats, 4 pm - 100m hurdles women heats, 4 pm - Long jump women heptathlon - 5, 4 pm - High jump women final, 4 pm - Pole vault women final, 4.20 pm - 110m hurdles men heats, 4.40 pm - 100m women final, 4.55 pm - 100m men final, 5.10 pm - 3,000m steeple chase men final, 5.30 pm - Javelin throw women heptathlon - 6, 5.30 pm - Long jump women final, 5.30 pm - 800m men heats round 1, 6 pm - 400m women final, 6.20 pm - 400m men final, 6.40 pm - 10,000m women final, 7.20 p.m. - 800m women heptathlon - 7, 7.40 pm - 4x100m relay women final, 8 pm - 4x100m relay men final. |
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