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| Saturday, 16 August 2003 |
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Susanthika looking for second medal Dinesh Weerawansa reporting from France PARIS, Friday - Sri Lanka will be looking forward to its second medal in IAAF World Championship history when the ninth edition of the mega event takes place in Saint Dennis here, starting next week.Leading Sri Lanka's challenge at the championships here will be Olympic medallist Susanthika Jayasinghe, who will be captaining the national team. Incidentally, Jayasinghe is the first and the only Sri Lankan ever to win a medal in the two-decade long IAAF World Championship history. This she achieved when she came second in the women's 200m final at the 6th IAAF World Championships in Athens, Greece in 1997 - the venue at which she would be looking forward to give Sri Lanka its first ever Olympic gold medal next year. Jayasinghe will be taking part in women's 100m and 200m, returning to Saint Dennis track here after a highly successful 2003 Asian Grand Prix series, during which she won three of the four leg meets. The absence of Sydney Olympic gold medallist Marion Jones of the USA, who gave birth to her first child last month would even brighten the chances of the 28-year-old Lankan lass. But Jayasinghe prefers not too talk much of her chances of a second World Championship medal. Instead, she wants to get into the qualifying rounds on a low profile and look for progress step by step. "All what I could say now is that I am going to improve on my personal best timings. Anything beyond that would be determined by how I make it on that particular day and the volume of competition that I am bound to get," says Jayasinghe. She is due to arrive here on Monday with the first batch of the Sri Lanka team, which includes her husband-coach Dhammika Nandakumara, a former Sri Lanka SAF Games athlete. Jayasinghe's physiotherapist Anura Bandara and Sri Lanka sprinter Sugath Tillakaratne are the other two members in the first of the two batches from Sri Lanka. The first batch will be accompanied by the President of the Athletic Association of Sri Lanka (AASL), Sunil Jayaweera, who will be attending next week's IAAF General sessions along with his AASL Secretary Prema Pinnawale. The IAAF World Championship, the third biggest sporting event in the world after the Olympics and FIFA World Cup, will also envelope the whole French capital as five events will be fought out for the majority of their duration on the streets of Paris. The women's 20km, and men's 20km and 50km Race Walks, as well as both the men's and women's marathons will bring this festival of sport directly to the inhabitants, with the two marathons in particular wending their way past the city's numerous famous landmarks to the Stade via the Porte de La Chapelle. Notre Dame, the Louvre, Champs-Elys,es, Arch de Triumph, Eiffel Tower are names that conjure up the unique atmosphere and ambience of Paris. Kenya's trump card in men's marathon will be Michael Rotich, who has the world's fastest timing of two hours, six minutes and 33 seconds. He won the 2003 spring's Paris Marathon. But he would face tough challenge from Ethiopian World and Olympic champion Gezahegne Abera. His 2:07:56 winning time in London might only be the ninth quickest in the world but the manner of his victory there in a sensational sprint to the line marks him out once again as the racer to beat. France's Benoit Zwierzchiewski, the Paris city winner in 2002 will be the local favourite. Asians are set to dominate in men's 20km race walk. It should turn out be a Chinese-led tussle. However, with SARS curtailing much competition this year in China, the current form of world season's leaders Zhu Hongjun (1:18:43) and Yu Chaohong (1:18:56) are yet to be tested in the big league. Bernardo Segura (1:19:06) the winner in Tijuana, and Spain's World record holder Francisco Javier Fern ndez, who finished second (1:19:08) are some of the top competitors who could give China some testing time. |
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