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| Saturday, 26 June 2004 |
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All set for athletic extravaganza by Dinesh Weerawansa The stage is set for Sri Lanka's annual athletic extravaganza with international flavour as the second leg of the Asian Grand Prix 2004 series would be worked off at Sugathadasa Stadium, Colombo tomorrow (27). Over 160 foreign athletes have arrived in Colombo to take part in the flood-lit meet which starts at 4 p.m. tomorrow. They would be joined by another 54-member team from Sri Lanka. Apart from the nine athletes who have made direct qualifications and would take part in all three legs, Sri Lanka, as the hosts, could field an additional two entries per event. The most star studded line up for an event would be witnessed in women's 200m in which Sri Lanka would have three of its star athletes - Olympic medallist Susanthika Jayasinghe, who won the first leg meet in Thailand, Asian Games triple gold medallist Damayanthi Darsha and South Asian Games 100m gold medallist Jani Chathurangani Silva. They would be joined by India's Asian Games 200m gold medallist Saraswathi Saha, Japan's Susuki Ayumi, China's Lisha Chen and two Uzbekistan girls Guzet Khubbieva and Perepelova. However, Jayasinghe looked a confident lass as she engaged in her workouts until late last evening. "I look forward to doing my best. I have the targets set in my mind and I would work towards those," the Sydney Olympic Games bronze medallist said. But she would be under pressure to gain the qualifying standard of 23.17 seconds needed to book her place in women's 200 for the Athens Olympics. She managed a relaxed 23.42 in winning the 200m at the Thai leg in Songkla on Wednesday. Reigning Asian Games champion for the last six years, Damayanthi Darsha too would be under pressure to perform. She is determined to bounce back, after being placed third in Songkla, her return to international track after one year lay off due to a leg injury. Having clocked only 52.82, Darsha would once again be challenged Kazakhstan's Svetlana Bodritskaya, who took a good lead over the Lankan lass at 52.15. Indian Sathi Geeta too would make the even more thrilling one. The day's athletic schedule comprise 23 events starting off with men's discus throw at 4.15 p.m. All events would be starlight finals. Among the events important to Sri Lanka are women's 400m at 4.15pm, men's 400m at 4.25 p.m, women's 200m at 5.45 p.m, men's 1,500m at 6.15pm and the last event for the day men's 4 x 400m relay - at 7.15 p.m. Boys and Girls 100m sprint events, restricted for locals, have been added as separate events to give an opportunity to budding athletes during an international meet. Prime Minister, Mahinda Rajapakse will be the chief guest at the opening ceremony of the Colombo Grand Prix this evening. The Athletic Association of Sri Lanka (AASL) has also planned to felicitate the Prime Minister for his contributions to track and field in Sri Lanka during his tenure as AASL President in 1997. A special memento is to be presented to PM Rajapakse during the ceremony. Minister of Youth Affairs and Sports, Jeewan Kumaratunga, Deputy Minister Sripathi Sooriyarachchi and Mayor of Colombo Prasanna Gunawardena too would grace the occasion along with the Secretary of the Asian Athletic Association, Maurice Nicholas. |
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