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| Saturday, 1 November 2003 |
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Sri Lanka sweat for three bronze medals by Dinesh Weerawansa Nigeria won for a sprint double while Sri Lanka ended with three bronze medals at the inaugural Afro Asian Games concluded in the Indian city of Hyderabad. Nigerians Adetonunbo Oloji Fasuba and Endurance Ojokolo were crowned the fastest man and woman of the first ever Afro Asian Games concluded at GMC Balayogi Athletic Stadium, Gachibowli in Hyderabad. The duo led the African challenge on the third and final day as the Asians won just six gold medals out of the 17 finals worked off on the final day. The 11 gold medals won by the Africans included the show piece of the meet - the 100m dash events. Fasuba's team mate Tamunosiki Atorudibo was just 0.05 seconds behind him to take the silver, ahead of Japan's Shingo Suetsugu (10.36). Endurance Ojokolo won women's 100m gold after an exciting final of which the silver and bronze medallists being separated in a photo finish. The Nigerian took 11.45 seconds. She was closely followed by Lyubov Perepelova (Uzbekistan) and Delphine bartile Atangana (Cameroon) - 11.49. Apart from the two sprints, Africans won both men's and women's 4 x 400m relays too. Following the success story of the men's tennis team, Sri Lanka won two more bronze medals in athletics through Sugath Tillakaratne and Sujeewa N. Jayasena. They came so much close to another. But the absence of seasoned men's 4 x 400m relay team which won gold medal at last month's Asian Championship was badly felt. Fielding a makeshift young side, Sri Lanka managed just last place in the relay final. The men's10km walk did not produce the close finish it was originally bound to produce. Algerian Moussa Aouanouk had a sweet win at the end in a timing of 43 minutes and 33.58 seconds to take the gold medal. Indian Sitaram Basat (45:09.40) and Thai Sakghai Samuthao (45:54.04), who won the silver and bronze respectively, could not offer a greater challenge to Aouanouk at the end. Asian sporting giants China proved that they have not lost their class in field events. The two lasses who took part in women's shot putt had total control to secure the first two places. Meiju Li cleared 17.61m to take the gold medal while her team mate Fengfeng Li (17.21) took the silver, ahead of Thailand's Juthaporn Krasaeyan (16.63). China won its second gold medal on the final day when Kai Cui bagged men's high jump gold. But the standard he achieved was far bellow expectations. Incidentally, the height he cleared - 2.18m, was the mark achieved by the ninth place winner at the last IAAF Junior World Championship. China narrowly missed yet another gold as Yuehua Yao (56.29) finished second behind Natalya Torshina of Kazakhstan (55.81) in women's 400m hurdles final. In fact, Asian made a clean sweep in women's 400m hurdles as the bronze too was won by Thailand - Wasana Winatho (57.09). All three medals in women's shot putt were won by Asians. However, major honours were shared by the Africans in most of the other events on the final day. |
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