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Dinesh Weerawansa reporting from South Korea

BUSAN, Sunday - A mishap in the baton change from second to third lap robbed Sri Lanka of a possible gold deal, though they finally settled to win the bronze in men's 4 x 400m relay on the penultimate day of the 14th Asian Games at the Main Sajik Stadium here today.

Nevertheless, it was Sri Lanka's first Asian Games relay medal in 28 years and only the second in the Games track and field history after the gold medal won by the Indian ocean island in the same event in Teheran Games, 1974.

Sri Lanka has high hopes of their third gold medal of the Busan Games after the record sprints of Susanthika Jayasinghe and Damayanthi Darsha. But a very poor baton change from Ranga Wimalawansa after the second lap to Prasanna Amarasekera caused Sri Lanka's downfall after they took early advantage.

Amarasekera, who was down to do the third lap, moved a few steps ahead, only to see him is running empty handed.

Though Wimalawansa was trying to pass on the baton to his team mate, excited Amarasekera failed to receive it clean. Amarasekera then moved a couple of steps backwards to finally take the baton and start his run. By that time, Sri Lanka had lost the advantage they had as third-lap runners Mohammed Al Salhi (Saudi Arabia) and Satbir Singh (India) passed Amarasekera with sheer speed.

On the other hand, Rohan Pradeep Kumara and Ranga Wimalawansa were not at their best, compared to their semi-final runs last evening. Pradeep Kuamra, who ran his lap in 44.94 seconds, took 45.04 today, according to the hand timing monitored by the Lankan coaches.

However, he took a very close lead by the time he passed the baton on to Wimalawansa, who capitalised on the lead. Then came that serious lapse a poor baton change, which was surprising to see between two athletes trained by the same coach. the unfortunate incident certainly robbed at least a couple of seconds from the Lankan timing.

But Amarasekera recovered quickly and ran a excellent first 250m of his 400m lap as Sri Lanka led by about three metres overtaking Saudi Arabia and India once again at this point. But Amarasekera could not maintain the same phase during the last 100m of his lap as Al Salhi and Singh passed him a top gear.

Sugath Tillakaratne too was not at his brilliant best in his anchor lap. It was understandable as Tillakaratne had to run without gaining his full 100% fitness today. But still, Sri Lanka would have won the gold, if the baton change between Wimalawansa and Amarasekera had been neat.

Running with a bandaged right thigh due to a hamstring injury, Tillakaratne ran his heart out made an unsuccessful attempt to overtake Indian Bhupendra Singh to give Sri Lanka the silver.

"It was sheer bad luck. We did not fare that well in the first two laps, compared to the semi-finals. Then the baton change mishap put us on the back foot. Sugath (Tillakaratne) too was not running with his full fitness. But if not for the poor baton change, we would have still won the gold," a dejected coach Sunil Gunawardena said after the race today.

It seemed that Saudi Arabia, trained by John Smith - the man who is coaching Olympic gold medallists Maurice Green, Ato Boldon and many other top sprinters, and India had studied Sri Lanka's plans for the relay.

India and Saudi Arabia adopted different strategies by putting two of their best 400m runners to do the first and second laps respectively - a psychological battle which also blocked Sri Lanka at the baton change.

At the end, Asia's emerging track and field power Saudi Arabia won the gold with a timing of three minutes, 2.47 seconds, followed by India (3:04.22 - silver), Sri Lanka (3.04.37 - bronze), Japan (3:05.85) and China (3:07.26) respectively. The victorious Arabian team comprised Hamed Al Bishi, Hadi Somay, Mohammed Al Salhi and Busan Asian Games 400m silver medallist Hamdan Al Bishi.

In the absence of Sri Lanka, which pulled out as expected with only three sprinters following injuries to Susanthika Jayasinghe and Sriyani Kulawansa, China bagged the gold medal in women's 4 x 100m relay clocking 43.84 seconds. It was a timing, which would have been within Sri Lanka's reach with Jayasinghe, Damayanthi Darsha and Anoma Sooriyarachchi in top form. The silver and bronze medals were won by Thailand (44.25) and Uzbekistan (44.32).

The Indians continued their impressive show in track and field when they bagged their seventh gold medal, clocking three minutes and 30.84 seconds in women's 4 x 400m relay. Kazakhstan (3:31.72) and China (3:32.43) won the silver and bronze respectively. Thailand came from behind to win men's 4 x 100m gold with a new Asian Games record timing of 38.82 seconds, followed by Japan (38.90 - silver) and China (39.09 - bronze).

The other four gold medals in today's events were won by Tao Wu of China (60.76m in men's discus throw), Tatiana Efimenko of Kygeykistan (1.90m in women's high jump), Qiuyan Huang of China (a new Games record of 14.28m in women's triple jump) and Pong Sil Ham of North Korea (two hours, 33 minutes and 35 seconds in women's marathon).

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