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| Monday, 3 November 2003 |
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Afro Asian Games athletic review African athletes dominate by Dinesh Weerawansa Sri Lanka bagged three medals as athletes from African continent came out with some superlative performance against their Asian counterparts at the inaugural Afro Asian Games track and field events worked off at GMC Balayogi Athletic Stadium, Gachibowli here in Hyderabad last week. Despite coming in to the end of a tight international calendar, coupled with injuries to key athletes, Sri Lanka did reasonably well to win three medals - two in athletics and one in tennis (men's team championship bronze for Harshana Godamanne and Rohan de Silva). Except for Sugath Tillakaratne, who won men's 400m bronze medal, none of the other top Sri Lanka athletes took part at the Games, some of them wanted to rest after series of back to back competitions while a few others were nursing injuries. Damayanthi Darsha and Susanthika Jayasinghe, who would have definitely won medals in their respective events, did not take part as they are recovering from injuries which kept them out of the recent IAAF World Championships. Then, Rohan Pradeep Kumara, Ranga Wimalawansa and Prasanna Amarasekera, all members of the 2003 Asian Championship gold medal winning men's 4 x 400m relay team, decided to skip the Games stating that they need rest. Under the circumstances, Sri Lanka's strength was just average. But they still managed to do reasonably well. Apart from Tillakaratne, the other athlete to win a medal for Sri Lanka was Sujeewa Nilmini Jayasena. She followed up her Asian Championship silver with another bronze medal, this time in women's 10,000m. Javelin thrower Anne Maheshi Silva of Sri Lanka Navy lived up to expectations to finish sixth. But the most promising debut in the big league came from that Lankan lass - Geetha Nandani Gallage, who was picked for the Games only a couple of days before their departure due some vacant slots offered by the organisers. She almost won a medal for Sri Lanka in her first major attempt in women's 10km walk. Gallage clocked an impressive 52 minutes and 58.80 seconds and finally settled for the fourth place.The two middle distance runners - Nishantha Wijekoon and Sunil Jayaweera, ran heart out despite a stiff competition from Africans. Sri Lanka's makeshift men's 4 x 400m relay team, the youngest amongst the teams at 21 years, finished last with a timing of three minutes and ten seconds plus. But it was a good exposure to the youngsters who will be an investment for the future - Dimuth Perera, Namal Bandara, Manoj Pushpakumara and Bandula Pushpakumara. It was an exciting three days of competition during which the Africans enjoyed a major portion of the 41 events that were worked off in the athletic competition of the 95-nation Games. Due to the bad timing of the championship period, especially after a strenuous 2003 season during which the IAAF World Championships, IAAF Grand Prix Finals, Asian Championships and African Games were concluded, the first ever Afro Asian Games did not attract all the elite athletes from the two continents. Furthermore, some of the top athletes were on the injured list at the end of the international season or needed a break badly. All in all there were a total of 41 events and the first day's honours were shared with Asia and Africa winning five gold medals each. But the Africans cut loose thereafter and went on to show their total dominance in the next two days. They won both the much looked forward to men's and women's 100m races as well as the four 100m and 400m relays. Of the 41 gold medals that were on offer, 29 were on by Africans. South Africa and Ethiopia had five golds each while two other gold medals were won by combined African teams. Among the other countries who excelled for Africa were Sudan (four gold medals), Kenya and Nigeria (three each). Only three countries contributed for the 12 Asian gold medals - five by China, four by Kazakhstan and three by India. |
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