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By Dinesh Weerawansa

Sri Lanka will become the world's newest Grand Prix athletic destination when Colombo hosts the island's first ever Grand prix meeting at Sugathadasa Stadium tomorrow. The 180-member elite team of Asian athletes, who are competing in all four meets of the 2003 Asian Grand Prix series in Hyderabad, Colombo, Bangkok and Manila, arrived here yesterday to a grand welcome at the Bandaranaike International Airport, Katunayake.

They were received on arrival by the President of the Athletic Association of Sri Lanka, Sunil Jayaweera, President of the National Olympic Committee, Hemasiri Fernando and other officials. The cream of Asian athletes were then taken on a special motorcade to the host hotel - the Colombo Plaza, former Lanka Oberoi.

AA President Jayaweera said they have finalised all arrangements to host the meet on a grand scale, in keeping with the high IAAF regulations. "Everything is set for the big event. The Asian Athletic Secretary Maurice Nicholas is here to oversee the meet aspects and he is happy with the arrangements here. The electronic timing system is in perfect shape and we should be able to maintain the high standards," he said. His experience in hosting the Asian Athletic Championship last year would go a long way in organising another successful international event here.

The Colombo Asian Grand Prix will commence at 5 p.m. tomorrow with men's long jump and ends at 8 p.m. after women's 4 x 100m relay. The timings of the key events which would feature Sri Lankan stars are - Susanthika Jayasinghe in women's 100m at 6.35 pm, Damayanthi Darsha in women's 400m at 7.30 p.m., Sriyani Kulawansa in women's 100m hurdles at 5.45 p.m, Sugath Tillakaratne and Rohan Pradeep Kumara in men's 400m at 7.15 p.m. All 16 men's and women's events will be straight finals, as in the Grand Prix circuit.

Apart from eight local athletes who compete in the entire series on super entry qualification, an additional 41 Sri Lankans will compete in Colombo tomorrow as each of the four host nations get two bonus entries for each of the eight men and women's events.

Despite a shock return home from Hyderabad and direct to a Colombo hospital after suffering from dehydration and gastro enteritis, super sprinter Susanthika Jayasinghe is set to retain women's 100m title and 11.30 timing she registered in India. Uzbekistan's Guzel Khubbieva is set to give a good fight to the Lankan lass.

Asian Games triple gold medallist Damayanthi Darsha is determined to set aside her minor set back in the Indian leg of the Grand Prix to regain the winning formula. She was placed only second in Hyderabad (52.78 seconds) to Kazakhstan's Svetlana Bodritskaya (52.59) in women's 400m. But Darsha is likely to make use of home conditions and beat Bodritskaya tomorrow.

But the most productive event for Sri Lanka would undoubtedly be the men's 400m, in which Rohan Pradeep Kumara, Sugath Tillakaratne and Prasanna Amarasekera are well set to make a clean sweep. Pradeep Kumara and Tillakaratne, who secured first two places last Wednesday, lost to Amarasekera at the recent SAF Games local trial.

Amarasekera, who could only compete in Colombo, could well spring a surprise.

Indika Kumara de Silva, Sri Lanka's new found hurdler who made a dream debut in Hyderabad in finishing second in men's 110m hurdles is bound to put more pressure on the winner Narongdech Janjai of Thailand. But both De Silva and the Thai can not forget the capabilities of Indian Naunidh Singh, another dark horse in this event.

Commonwealth Games silver medallist Sriyani Kulawansa-Fonseka is another bright prospect for Sri Lanka. Despite finishing a close second to Thai lass Trecia Roberts in Hyderabad, veteran Kulawansa is capable of another improved performance here.

The results:

Men: 100m: 1. Gennadiy Chernovol (KAZ) 10.42s, 2. Sittichai Suwornprateep (THA) 10.45s, 3. Ekkachai Junthana (THA) 10.54s.

400m: 1. Rohan Pradeep Kumara (SRI) 45.95s, 2. Sugath Tillakeratne (SRI) 46.28s, 3. Anil Kumar Rohil (IND) 47.77s.

800m: 1. Mohammed Al-Salhi (KSA) 1:50.04, 2. Mikhail Kolaganov (KAZ) 1:50.43 , 3. P. S. Primesh (IND) 1:51.10.

110m hurdles: 1. Narongdech Janjai (THA) 14.14s, 2. A. I. Kumara de Silva (SRI) 14.37s, 3. Naunidh Singh (IND) 14.48s.

Long jump: 1. Mohammed Al-Khuwaildi (KSA) 7.85m, 2. Ahmed Al-Dossary (KSA) 7.51m, 3. Maha Singh (IND) 7.38m.

Discus throw: 1. Abbas Samimi (Iran) 61.06m, 2. Anil Kumar (IND) 57.83m, 3. Sultan Al Dawodi (KSA) 55.70m.

Javelin throw: 1. Sergey Voynov (UZB) 78.36m, 2. Ramandeep Singh (IND) 76.92m, 3. Jagdish Bishnoi (IND) 67.35m.

Women:

100m: 1. Susanthika Jayasinghe (SRI) 11.30s, 2. Guzel Khubbieva (UZB) 11.35s, 3. Oranut Klomdee (THA) 11.45s.

400m: 1. Svetlana Bodritskaya (KAZ) 52.59s, 2. Damayanthi Darsha (SRI) 52.78s, 3. S. Geetha (IND) 56.75s.

800m: 1. Tatyana Roslanova (KAZ) 2:02.05, 2. Zamira Amirova (UZB) 2:02.82, 3. Tatyana Borisova (KGZ) 2:03.75.

100m hurdles: 1. Trecia Roberts (THA), 13.22s, 2. Sriyani Kulawansa (SRI) 13.32, 3. Soma Biswas (IND) 14.30s.

Long jump: 1. Yelena Kashcheyeva (KAZ) 6.62m, 2. Marstella Torres (PHI) 6.21m, 3. Elena Bobrovskaya (KGZ) 6.15m.

Shot put: 1. Du Xianhui (SIN) 18.38m, 2. Zhang Guirong (SIN) 17.84, 3. Juthaporn Krasaeyan (THA) 16.10m.

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