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From the Press Box by Sa'adi Thawfeeq

Apart from cricket, athletics is the sport Sri Lanka has won encomiums around the world and such is the following for it as in cricket, that any performances below par arouses suspicion and brings forth a whole pile of criticism.

The performances of our athletes at the Commonwealth Games in Manchester was to say the least, disappointing. They failed to win a single medal which the country was expectantly looking forward to.

The athletes themselves know they have let the country down very badly and will be looking for a chance to redeem themselves at the 14th Asian Athletics championships which got off to a spectacular start with a stunning opening ceremony at the Sugathadasa Stadium on Thursday evening.

Team captain Susanthika Jayasinghe on whom a lot will depend for a medal will want to put behind her disappointment at Manchester where she was disqualified in her pet event the women's 200 metres, despite finishing first in the heats. How an athlete with Susanthika's experience can get disqualified for failing to keep within her lane is inexplicable.

"This is an important event for all of us and we should make every effort to come out on top. We want to make our country proud," said a determined Susanthika. On her strong shoulders rest the country's hopes of medals.

With a bronze at the Sydney Olympics and a silver at the IAAF world championships in the 200 metres Susanthika is the most successful athlete produced by the country in the past decade, although others like Damayanthi Darsha, Sriyani Kulawansa and Sugath Tillakaratne have also been responsible for the country's athletics success winning medals in the Commonwealth and Asian Games.

Susanthika is expected to run in the women's 100m 200m and 4 x 100m events, Tillakaratne in the men's 400m, Kulawansa in the women's 100m hurdles and Darsha in the women's 4 x 400m after pulling out of her pet event, the women's 400m. There are also other lesser known athletes competing for Sri Lanka which is fielding its largest athletic contingent of 103.

Being the home country, expectations will be high from the athletes and one hopes they don't falter under pressure. After all the pains and trouble Sports Minister Johnston Fernando and Sri Lanka athletics chief Sunil Jayaweera have taken to ensure the championships will be a successful one, it is now the turn of the athletes to show some sort of appreciation for the efforts these two gentlemen have put in, by winning some medals.

That Minister Fernando himself undertook the task of chairing the organizing committee of the championships speaks for the amount of importance that was attached to the event.

Although the Minister himself has brought a rule in the Sports Law debarring politicians from holding posts in sports bodies, there is also another side to the story. The contribution Fernando made to athletics through the hosting of the Asian athletics championships, someone else can also be as successful as him in a different sport. It has been proved in the past with cricket benefiting a lot from the late Gamini Dissanayake's seven-year tenure as president of the Sri Lanka Cricket Board.

The athletes know they face the best of what Asia can offer, but the experience of having competed against Commonwealth nations and the rest of the world at Olympic level in the past should hold them in good stead.

Everyone loves a winner and nothing would please the government which pumped in as much as Rs. 200 million despite a sagging economy and a huge budget deficit to back the hosting of this mega event, which is easily the largest sporting happening to be held in this country with 39 countries and over 1000 athletes and officials in attendance.

Hosting an event of such magnitude will have its usual critics waiting with poisoned pens to pinpoint on the minute of mistakes and to blow them out of proportion. Overall, what counts is the successful completion of it, which will eventually silence all and sundry. That Sri Lanka is becoming more and more a venue for hosting international events speaks highly of the organizing capabilities of our people and what the country has to offer in terms of tourism.

Following closely on the heels of the Asian championships will be the ICC Champions trophy cricket tournament next month where the country's sports fans will get the rare opportunity of witnessing all 10 Test playing nations in action in addition to the two non-Test-playing nations Holland and Kenya.

It will be another three weeks of cricket at the highest level or as the organizers of the event ICC like to call it - the mini World Cup which is a prelude to the real and big one taking place in South Africa and Zimbabwe in February/March next year.

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