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| Monday, 1 September 2003 |
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Relay runners last and disqualified Dinesh Weerawansa reporting from France PARIS, Sunday - Sri Lanka suffered a double blow crashing out of the men's 4 x 400m relay at the 9th IAAF World Championship at Stade de France, Saint Denis here last night. The Lankan team, which came with high hopes of a place in the finals not only finished last but were also disqualified later. Sri Lanka's main target was to be within the last 16 in the semi-final line-up to qualify to run in next year's Olympic Games in Greece. But it was not to be and they even failed to secure the last place as the team was disqualified for a technical lapse in the take over zone between the third and fourth legs, involving Ranga Wimalawansa and Sugath Tillakaratne. The IAAF Rule 170 (9) says: Runners in the third and fourth legs of the 4 x 400m relay race shall, under the direction of a designated official, place themselves in their waiting positions in the same order (inside to out) as the order of their respective team members as they complete 200m of their legs. Once the incoming runners have passed this point, the waiting runners shall maintain their order, and shall not exchange positions at the beginning of the take over zone. Should any athlete not follow this rule, he shall cause the disqualification of his team. Running in lane one of the men's 4 x 400m heat three, Sri Lanka started off with Prasanna Amarasekera, who had a good reaction time of 0.178 in getting off the blocks. But the triple bronze medallist in the 2003 Asian Grand Prix series was nowhere near his best as our hand timings indicated a 46.9-second first lap. Sri Lanka never recovered from the poor start of Amarasekera, though sailors Rohan Pradeep Kumara Fernando and Ranga Wimalawansa showed some sort of promise in finishing the second and third laps 45 plus. Sri Lanka Navy's Fernando was the most aggressive of the four Lankan sprinters as he took 45.7 seconds (hand timing) but his lone effort could not resurrect the Lankan team, which finished eighth and last. Our hand timings indicated 45.9 seconds for Wimalawansa's third lap, 46.2 for Tillakaratne's anchor lap in a total of three minutes and 4.8 seconds. The biggest disappointment was 1998 Asian Games gold medallist Tillakaratne, who even could not do a 46 under, despite having a career best 400m timing of 44.61 seconds. We had a bad start and we never recovered from that. I had little to do by the anchor lap as we were far behind in the last spot. But I too did not run that good and it was not our day at all, Tillakaratne said after the race. Sri Lanka relay team alleged that they have been in poor physicological condition after being ill-treated by their athletic officials. They said Tillakaratne was promised reimbursement of the expense of buying a new pair of spikes but the officials later refused to pay the 140-Euro bill. Our athletic officials said they are not worried whether we run or not, the Lankan sprinters alleged. They said that after the officials refused to pay back the cost of Sugath's (Tillakaratne) spikes, they were utterly disappointed and were not in good frame of mind due to ill-treatment. But the President of the Athletic Association of Sri Lanka, Sunil Jayaweera said athletes have been given perks and other financial benefits as never before in the history. Our top athletes earned over Rs. five million due to our efforts in getting them down to the 2003 Asian Grand Prix series. Our athletes were given a professional look with monthly cash payments for Lankan athletes at all levels ranging from Rs. 500 to Rs. 20,000. This is apart from the meal allowances, nutrition and other medical care. What else could we do in a country like Sri Lanka? asked Jayaweera. Sri Lanka athletic chief looked disappointed after unjustifiable allegations leveled by the relay team. We gave Rs. 40,000/- to Tillakaratne and Rs. 20,000/- each to all top grade athletes including Rohan Pradeep, Wimalawansa and Amarasekera. They wanted new track kits for the relay and we spent 245 Euro (nearly Rs. 27,000/-) to buy them in Paris. We have given more than what we could give within our limitations, Jayaweera said adding that it's the athletes who would get the glory of winning. Three of the eight teams which ran in men's 4 x 400m relay heat three were disqualified. Sri Lanka, Dominican Republic and Kenya. However, Sri Lanka and Kenya were disqualified for the identical fault. This heat was won by the hosts France with a timing of 3:01.79, followed by Great Britain & Northern Ireland (3:02.22) and South Africa (3:03.05). Meanwhile, Sri Lanka's Susanthika Jayasinghe, who was among the 26 candidates contesting for the 12 seats in the IAAF Athletes Commission, failed to secure a place. Earlier, the Lankan sprint queen alleged that athletes from her own team were not supporting her and were working against her candidature. Among the 12 athletes who topped the poll among the competitors in the Athletes Village, were Ethiopian Haile Gebrselassie who had a record 733 votes. Moroccan Hicham El Guerrouj (654) was placed second in the poll, ahead of Bahamas sprinter Debbie Ferguson (633). On the day eight of the 203-nation championship, Moroccan Jaouad Gharib clocked two hours, eight minutes and 31 seconds to win men's marathon final with a new continental record for Africa. In the second place was Spanish long distance runner Julio Rey (2:08.38), followed by the bronze medallist from Italy Stefano Baldini (2:09.14). Japan's Shigeru Aburaya had 2.09.26 in finishing fifth, behind fourth-placed Alberto Chaica from Portugal (2:09.25). Among the other victorious gold medallists were American Allen Johnson (13.12 in men's 110m hurdles), French woman Eunice Barber (6.99m in long jump) and Ethiopian Tirunesh Dibaba (14:51.72 in women's 5,000m). Having missed the services of double gold medallist Kelli White, who is in the centre of a drug scandal, the USA settled for the silver in women's 4 x 100m returning a timing of 41.83, their season's best. Hosts France bagged the silver in 41.78 seconds - the world's leading this year. Russia (42.66) came third. |
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