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by DINESH WEERAWANSA reporting from South Korea

BUSAN, Thursday. - Injured sprinter Sugath Tillakaratne will be fit to run for Sri Lanka's men's 4 x 400m relay team, which is tipped to win the gold medal at the 14th Asian Games here . Tillakaratne, who is down to do the anchor lap for Sri Lanka in the 400m relay, had a sad first round exit in defending his men's 400m gold medal at the Busan Games two days ago.

Tillakaratne has been affected by a leg injury, which troubled him during his men's 400m first round heat on Tuesday, in which he was placed only fifth to be eliminated from the final. But compatriot Rohan Pradeep Kumara did not make Sri Lanka feel Tillakaratne's absence too badly, winning the bronze medal in yesterday's final.

The Bangkok Asian Games double medallist, Tillakaratne has shown a vast improvement and would be able to make a come back for the relay, according to his coach Anura Bandara. He said Tillakaratne's injury is nothing to worry about too much and his boy should be fit by Sunday's final, scheduled for 11 a.m. local time (8 am SL time). Tillakaratne was seen doing light work outs at the nearby Training venue and is recovering fast. "I should be able to make it to the final. We have a good chance of winning the gold medal. All of us are determined to make it. I want to be there and anchor our team to victory," Tillakaratne said.

However, Sri Lanka has kept two stand-byes in case Tillakaratne's injury makes any concern within the next few days. Nilantha Aludeniya and S.P.N. Hemantha have been warming up with the teams as back-up resources as Sri Lanka aims at winning an Asian Games relay gold after 28 long years. Sri Lanka's one and only Asian Games gold medal in a relay was won in 1974 when W.Wimaladasa, Sunil Gunawardena, Kosala Sahabandu and A. Premachandra teamed up to finish first at the Teheran Asian Games. Incidentally, three out of the four members of the present Sri Lanka men's relay team are trained by Gunawardena - Rohan Pradeep Kumara, Ranga Wimalawansa and Prasanna Amarasekera..

Yesterday's men's 400m bronze medallist, Rohan Pradeep Kumara said he is ready to do the first lap and give early advantage for Sri Lanka. "I will do the first lap. I hope to gain a lead so that Prasanna (Amarasekera) and Ranga (Wimalawansa) could maintain that. Then Sugath (Tillakaratne) could accelerate in the anchor lap," Pradeep Kumara said.

Sri Lanka national coach Dervin Perera said Sri Lanka has a strong men's 4 x 400m and women's 4 x 100m relay teams and that they should be able to strike gold, if they run to their true form. "I think we have a pretty good chance here and must make every effort to achieve that. Our boys and girls are training hard for that," Perera said today.

Besides the men's 4 x 400m relay, Sri Lanka's other gold medal hope on Sunday, the penultimate day of the 44-nation Games, will be in women's 4 x 100m relay.

The Lankan team comprise Jani Chathurangani, Damayanthi Darsha, Anoma Sooriyarachchi and that Sri Lanka version of Marion Jones - Susanthika Jayasinghe. Meanwhile, centre Lakshman Dissanayake, who injured his neck in Sri Lanka rugby team's 6-129 humiliating loss to Asian giants Japan in yesterday's rugby match in Ulsan, has almost recovered. "I am okay.

The doctors here took x-rays and found nothing wrong," Dissanayake said from the Athletes Village. China continued to underline its Asian sporting supremacy with 120 gold by last night and are aiming at breaking their Asian Games record gold haul of 183 medals, established in Beijing, 1990. China could well go for that goal with two of their strongest sports athletics and wushu yet to be completed.

Sri Lanka too is looking forward to their best ever performance at Asian Games.

Their best so far in the 50-year-old Games history was in Bangkok, 1998 when they bagged three gold medals - two by Darsha and one by Tillakaratne.

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