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| Saturday, 3 July 2004 |
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Lankan Relay team's chances for Olympic looks brighter Dinesh Weerawansa reporting from Philippines Manila, Friday. - Sri Lanka's men's 4 x 400m relay team has secured a ranking within the first 16 teams in the world to book their place in the forthcoming Olympic Games in Athens. Having finished second in all three meets of the Asian Grand Prix Series 2004, Sri Lanka's men's 400m relay team's presence in Athens looked bright. In a race which was run on a general low pace, Sri Lanka finished second to India in the third leg of the Asian Grand Prix here last evening. Sri Lanka relay team clocked three minutes 5.81 seconds while India finished ahead of them in 3:05.03. Sri Lanka team had the identical placing in the first two legs of the Asian Grand Prix Series in Thailand (3:05.08) and Sri Lanka (3:04.46). Sri Lanka team is placed 15th in the IAAF World rankings qualifications for the Olympics in the latest standings, a step ahead than they enjoyed before the commencement of the Asian Grand Prix Series. India's clean sweep in the series have enabled them to advance to the 16th place in the latest rankings to stand an outside chance of making it to Athens. Though Sri Lanka and India have finished within the top 16, they still will have to keep their fingers crossed as the final rankings for Olympic qualification would only be known by early next month. There are a couple of strong teams currently out of the top 16 and there could be a slight change in the final line up, depending on the performance of the relay teams in the European and American Grand Prix and circuit meets during this month. Meanwhile, former Asian Games 400m gold medallist Sugath Tillakaratne is expected to be fit to run for Sri Lanka relay team at the Olympics. His absence was badly felt by Sri Lanka team during the Asian Grand Prix. If not for the injury which forced Tillakaratne out of the Asian Grand Prix, Sri Lanka would have beaten India and improved on their average timing, which is the decisive factor for the qualification of relay teams for the Olympics. Former Navy Sports Club sprinter Rohan Pradeep Kumara Fernando, who had to burden a greater pressure in Manila in the absence of Tillakaratne, said they are looking forward to make it to the Olympics. "Unfortunately we could not win. That was because of Sugath absence. If not for his injury, we would have beaten India. We had a problem in finding a replacement to do the anchor lap. But if we qualify and Sugath returns to the team, we should be able to come good," Fernando said today. Of the Sri Lanka athletes who took part in the Asian Grand Prix Series, Fernando enjoyed the richest purse of USD 6,000 (over Rs. 605,000/-) as prize money. Olympic medallist Susanthika Jayasinghe was the second in the high earners list of Lankans with USD 4,500 (over Rs. 453,000/-). Prasanna Amarasekera earned USD 3,000 (nearly Rs. 303,000/-) for winning in men's 200m in Manila and finishing second in Colombo. The other Sri Lankan who have won prize money are high jumper Manjula Kumara Wijesekera (USD 2,000), Asian Games triple gold medallist Damayanthi Darsha (USD 1,000), middle distance runner Chaminda Wijekoon USD 1,000) and sprinter Joy Danushka Perera (USD 700). Sri Lanka's 16-member team, including Manager Oliver Fernando and coach Yasarohana de Silva, is due to leave Manila tomorrow morning. But two of Sri Lanka's leading woman sprinters who have already qualified for the Olympics - Susanthika Jayasinghe (women's 100) and Damayanthi Darsha (women's 400) would have to get back to immediate training as they have a little over a month before they fly to Greece early next month. |
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