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| Monday, 26 July 2004 |
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Rohan Pradeep to lead Olympic contingent by Dinesh Weerawansa Asian championship double gold medallist, Rohan Pradeep Kumara Fernando will be the overall captain of the Sri Lanka contingent for next month's summer Olympic Games in Greece. The former Sri Lanka Navy star sprinter has been preferred ahead of Olympic medallist Susanthika Jayasinghe, Asian Games triple gold medallist Damayanthi Darsha, Commonwealth Games gold medallist Pushpamali Ramanayake and Asia Pacific Age Group championship double gold medallist Condrad Francis for the top post. This will be the second successive Olympic Games for Fernando, who made his debut in Sydney 2000 Games. He came in to the limelight winning the men's 400m and 4 x 400m gold medals at the 1999 South Asian Games (SAF) in Kathmandu. But the biggest moment in his career came in 2000 Asian Championship in Jakarta where he won gold medals in identical events. Fernando is in top form at present, having won all three meets of the 2004 Asian Grand Prix Series worked off in Thailand, Sri Lanka and Philippines. But he is bound to face tough competition at the Athens Olympics which starts mind next month. He is one of the top ranked sprinters in Asia and is rated within the top 60 in the world. Fernando looked a happy man when the 'Daily News' broke the good news last evening. "I am happy and honoured to lead my country's Olympic contingent. With a couple of injury worries in the team, I know there is a great responsibility on my shoulders. I feel that I should be able to do something, at least to make our presence felt," Fernando said. He was happy with the progress he has been making over the past few months but said a lot of effort should be made within the coming weeks to be in top gear. "It is going to be a tough assignment. But I will make every effort to make my country proud. Unfortunately, we are not in the relay," he said. He was somewhat worried that Sri Lanka missed out a place in the men's 4 x 400m relay for the Olympics as only the top 16 teams in the world are given berths. "Unfortunately Sugath (Tillakaratne) was injured in the early part of the Asian Grand Prix. As a result, we were unable to go for the targetted timings. That pushed us to the 18th place. If we had Sugath's services we would have definitely made it to the Olympics," he said. Sri Lanka will field five athletes, two swimmers and a shooter for the Athens Olympic Games. One of the most experienced in the Lankan contingent to Greece will be rifle shooter Pushpamali Ramanayake. The officials accompanying the team are yet to be finalised, President Athletic Association of Sri Lanka Sunil Jayaweera will be the manager of the athletic team. No final decision has been taken on the three coaches who are set to accompany the five athletes - Sunil Gunawardena, Lakshman de Alwis and Dhammika Nandakumara. Sri Lanka contingent for the Olympic Games: Rohan Pradeep Kumara Fernando (Overall captain and men's 400m), Manjula Kumara Wijesekera (men's high jump), Anuruddha Indrajith Cooray (men's marathon), Susanthika Jayasinghe (women's 100m), Damayanthi Darsha (women's 400m), Shooting - Pushpamali Ramanayake, Swimming - Condrad Francis (men's 100m butterfly stroke), Menaka de Silva. |
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