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| Monday, 4 August 2003 |
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Paris-bound athletes impress at Peace Games by Dinesh Weerawansa Sri Lanka's Paris-bound World Championship athletes won their respective events with the least effort while national team discard Sriyani Kulawansa registered her career best timing in her pet event at the 2003 Peace Games worked off at Sugathadasa Stadium, yesterday. The event was conducted by the MBC/MTV in association with the Ministry of Youth Affairs & Sports and Department of Sports Development and was sponsored by National Lotteries Board. All Sri Lanka national team athletes, who are due to leave for France to take part in the IAAF World Championships in two weeks time, took part in their respective event. The only notable absentee was Asian Games double gold medallist Damayanthi Darsha who also skipped the previous week's nationals as she is recovering from a leg injury. Sprinter Rohan Pradeep Kumara Fernando, who did not take part at the recent National Championship, too was seen in action after his return from an open international meet in Teheran. However, sailor Fernando could not compete in his pet event - men's 400m, as only the eight finalists of the previous week's Sri Lanka national championship, were invited to take part in the respective events which were straight finals. Since there was a couple of foreigners in the men's 200m final of the nationals. Fernando was drafted in to run in the men's 200m after a long time. Fernando showed he could fit into a 200m without much effort as he won the event, closely followed by his 2001 Edmonton World Championship team mate and fellow sailor Ranga Wimalawansa. None of the top elite Sri Lanka athletes made an all out effort. This was understandable as they are yet to reach their peak in their training schedules. On the other hand, they did not want to risk any injury with only two weeks away from the World Championships. Despite having a controlled sprint. Olympic medallist Susanthika Jayasinghe had no trouble in winning the women's 100m and 200m events to complete a grand double. Jayasinghe, took things lightly and maintained a slender lead without firing on top gear which enabled young Jani Chathurangani the second-placed, to get close to Jayasinghe at the finish in the women's 200m dash. This was evident in the women's 100m as well, which Jayasinghe won with a timing of 11.88 seconds. The most notable performance in the women's events came from former Commonwealth Games silver medallist and veteran hurdler Sriyani Kulawansa. She won the women's 100m hurdles in an impressive timing of 12.87 seconds, which is slightly better than her carer best and Sri Lanka record timing of 12.91 seconds, established at the 1996 Atlanta Olympics. But no immediate confirmation could be made on the accuracy of the timing and recognition of her feat as a Sri Lanka record. The men's short spirint was won by S.P.N. Hemantha. He clocked an impressive 10.57 seconds to take the title. Former SAF Games gold medallist and ex-national champion Chinthaka de Zoysa finished fifth and announced his intentions to hang up his spikes by the end of this year. Former Asian Games gold medallist Sugath Tillakaratne improved on his last week's National championship victorious timing of 45.70 seconds to w`in the men's 400m event in 45.57 seconds, a mere 0.02 seconds short of the World Championship 'A' grade qualification. However, Tillakaratne has already been picked to run in the men's 400m individual event at the Paris World meet at the expense of Rohan Pradeep. Java Lane Sports Club emerged champions at the seven-a-side soccer tournametn of the 2003 Peace Games. They edged out Jupitors Sports Club by two goals to one in a keenly contested final. The scores were tied one-all before Java Lane broke the deadlock in the last minute of the game to earn a sweet win. In the semi-finals, Jupitors SC beat Renown SC 5-4 on a penalty shoot out while Java Lane crushed Blue Stars SC 4-0. The chief guest at the grand finals and the awards presentation was Japan's Senior Deputy Minister of Foreign Affairs, Tetsuo Yano, who also made a lavish contribution to the Football Federation of Sri Lanka for the promotion of soccer in Sri Lanka. Among the other VVIPs who graced the awards ceremony were Ministers Johnston Fernando and Milinda Moragoda. |
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