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by Dinesh Weerawansa

Sri Lankans made their presence felt on the first of the four-leg 2003 Asian Grand Prix Series worked off in Hyderabad, India last night.

Olympic medallist Susanthuika Jayasinghe (women's 100m) and Asian Championship double gold medallist Rohan Pradeep Kumara (men's 400m) secured first places with some encouraging timings.

Running in her first meet after pulling out of women's 200m at the last Asian Games in Busan in October, 2002, Jayasinghe clocked an impressive 11.15 second to win women's 100m dash with a new meet record. The previous best in the series was 11.27 seconds.

Jayasinghe, who won women's 100m gold at the Busan Asian Games and later pulled out of the 200m due to a hamstring injury, showed that she has fully recovered from the injury and is ready to take the challenge to the forthcoming IAAF World Championships in Paris in August.

The three remaining meets of the Asian Grand Prix 2003 series in Colombo, Bangkok, and Manila would give Jayasinghe an ideal lead up for the IAAF World Championship, the meet which first brought her international fame with a silver in women's 200m in Athens, 1997.

Jayasinghe said she was not too sure whether her old injury would affect her, as Hyderabad Grand Prix was her first international meet after recovering. But a happy Jayasinghe said the things went on smoothly and is now confident of maintaining her winning form in the remaining meets of the Asian Grand Prix Series.

Besides Jayasinghe, the other Lankan 'golden feat' came from sailor Rohan Pradeep Kumara, a bronze medallist at the last Asian Championship in Colombo last year. It was Rohan Pradeep Kumara's best performance since winning two gold medals at the 2000 Asian Championships in Jakarta. He clocked 46.2 seconds to secure the second place against some stiff competition and bring honour to Sri Lanka and Navy Sports Club.

The 1998 Bangkok Asian Games gold medallist Sugath Tillakaratne too was beaten once again by compatriot Rohan Pradeep Kumara. Tillakaratne settled for the second place in men's 400m.

Busan Asian Games women's 400m gold medallist, Damayanthi Darsha had to be satisfied with the second place in her pet event after clocking 52.7 seconds. Darsha and Jayasinghe are two of Sri Lanka's brightest medal prospects at the forthcoming IAAF World Championships, a feat only Jayasinghe has performed so far in local track and field history.

Veteran hurdler Sriyani Kulawansa maintained her position in women's 100m hurdles when she finished second, a position she secured at the 2002 Asian Championships to win a silver medal.

But the shock came from A.I. Manoj Indika who won the second place in men's 110m hurdles.

Overall, Sri Lanka should be happy with their performance at the Hyderabad Grand Prix and could now look forward to go for greater heights when Colombo hosts the second leg of the series at Sugathadasa Stadium on Sunday.

As hosts, Sri Lanka enjoy the bonus of fielding two competitors for each event, irrespective of the qualification of 180 top athletes in Asia. The entire elite Asian athletes' contingent of 180 are due to arrive in Colombo in one batch from India tomorrow. They will have practice sessions on Saturday before the second leg of the Asian Grand Prix on Sunday under lights.

On completion of the Colombo leg, the athletes will leave for Bangkok to compete in the third meet of the series on June 5, followed by the last in Manila on June 9. Incidentally, this will be the first ever Grand Prix athletic meeting ever to be hosted by Sri Lanka and full credit should go to Sri Lanka athletic chief Sunil Jayaweera and his Secretary Prema Pinnawale for securing the Grand Prix meet for Colombo.

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