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| Wednesday, 24 September 2003 |
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Maheshika Silva wins bronze in women's Javelin throw Gold for Sri Lanka in men's 4 x 400m relay Bernard Perera reporting from Philippines Sri Lanka's 4 x 400 metre relay squad comprising Rohan Pradeep Kumara, Ranga Wimalawansa, Prasanna Amarasekera and Sugath Tillekeratne ended the final day of the 15th Asian Athletic Championship with the first gold medal for their country. These four athletes completed the course in a time of 3:03:05 secs to push back the strong Japanese and Qatar teams to second and third slots. Doing the first lap Rohan Pradeep held on to the leader Japan and Qatar and went past them just 10 metres away from the first change. Ranga Wimalawansa too kept the momentum going and Prasanna Sampath did the third lap. The fourth lap saw veteran sprinter Sugath take charge and put the finishing touches. He was behind Japan's Takahiko until the last 50 meters and with a fine burst got past the leader with ten metres away from the finishing line. The other medal that came in for Sri Lanka was when Anne Maheshika won the bronze for her achievement of 50.18 in the javelin event. Sri Lanka ended the meet with a tally of three medals 1 gold, 1 silver and 1 bronze. China headed the medal tally was followed by Qatar. Dayamanthi Dharsha dashed all hopes of a medal for Sri Lanka when she kept off the 200m event here yesterday. Her absence, for the event also was a demoralising factor for the 4 x 400m relay team. On Monday it was stated that Dharsha was to compete yesterday. Jain Chathurangani de Silva however was impressive in the same event competing in a very strong field from the Asian Region. She completed the distance clocking 23.98 secs. The winner of the race Lyubov Perepelova of Uzbekistan had a time of 23.11 secs for the event. Prasanna Sampath Amarasekera too was not an impressive athlete for Sri Lanka on the final day of the meet when he was placed last in the 200m men's event clocking a time of 21.52 against the winners 20.70 secs. from Kuwait Al Shammari. Mangala Priyadarshani who ran a good race on Monday in the 800m semi-final to be placed third failed to maintain the same run yesterday and had to be content with the seventh slot choking a time of 2.08.50 secs. Harjan Ratnayake was the other competitor from Sri Lanka who faced the starter on the final day. Here too it was a sad ending for Harjan and Lanka when he finished the 400m hurdles seventh at of eight competitors. He had clocked 2.8.50 Yin Yin Khine was the winner from Myanmar. |
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