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| Tuesday, 28 October 2003 |
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Sri Lanka misses out on a place in tennis 'semis' by Dinesh Weerawansa Sri Lanka missed out a place in the semi-finals of the Afro Asian Games men's doubles tennis championships in Hyderabad yesterday. Sri Lanka's doubles combination of Rohan de Silva and Harshana Godamanne put up a gallant show in the first set but were finally lost to Philippines 0-2 in the quarter finals of the men's doubles tennis championship of the 95-nation Games worked off at SAAP Tennis Centre, Fateh Maidan, Hyderabad yesterday. De Silva and Godamanne put up a brave effort in the first sent which went into a tie breaker but could not maintain the same pressure on the Filipino duo in the second set to finally lose 6-7, 0-6. Earlier in the day, Sri Lanka lost their men's singles first round match to Philippines in straight sets 5-7, 4-6. Hosts India maintained their supremacy when they bagged the gold medal in women's team championship, beating Indonesia. Earlier, they breezed into the final beating Nigeria at the Lal Bahadur stadium. Rushmi Chakravarthy crushed Osara Amadin 6-0, 6-3 in the first singles tie and Sania Mirza had the better of Calar Udofa 6-2, 6-2. Indonesia, on their way to the women's team championship final, beat Philippines by two sets to one in the semis. Philippines was given good start by Czarina Arevalo who beat Septi Mende of Indonesia 7-5, 4-6, 6-3 in a thriller. However, Indonesia came back strongly and drew level thanks to Sandy Gumulya who beat Patricia Santos 7-6, 6-1 and in the deciding doubles match the Indonesian pair of Sandy Gumulya and Septi Mende beat Czarina Arevalo and Patricia Santos 7-5, 2-6, 7-5. Meanwhile, the athletic competition of the inaugural Afro Asian Games will commence at the GMC Balayogi stadium today. Sri Lanka will be fielding a 11-member team of which its captain Sugath Tillakaratne will be the first to be seen in action. The 1998 Bangkok Asian Games gold medallist is due to compete in men's 400m event scheduled for 4.15pm local time this evening. Five more Sri Lankans athletes have entered tomorrow's competition schedules. O.Nandani will take part in women's 20km walk at 6.30 a,m, local time tomorrow. Sri Lanka's Shantha Mendis will take part in men's 3,000m steeple chase at 3 p.m. Tomorrow. Also to be seen in action tomorrow are Asian Championship silver medallist Sujeewa Nilmini Jayasena in women's 10,000m final, Nishantha Wijekoon and Sunil Jayaweera in men's 1,500m. In a Afro Asian Games men's hockey tournament match played yesterday, South Africa had a smashing five goals to nil win against fellow Africans Ghana. In soccer competition matches played yesterday, Uzbekistan were held to an exciting one-all draw by Zimbabwe in a keenly contested game. In another match for the day, Burkina Faso edged out Iran by two goals to one. Asian sporting giants China continued to head the latest medals standings of the Afro Asian Games by the day four. At the time of writing, they have won nine gold medals to take a smart lead. South Korea, Nigeria and Japan have four gold each. But the hosts India, in the sixth place, have won the most number of medals - 21, including two gold and nine silver. The first ever Afro Asian Games produced a world record in shooting yesterday. Olga Dovgun of Kazakhstan scored 600 points in women's 50m sports rifle prone event to establish a new World record. |
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