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| Thursday, 19 August 2004 |
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Wijesekera good chance of entering final Dinesh Weerawansa reporting from Greece ATHENS, Wednesday, Sri Lanka's champion high jumper Manjula Kumara Wijesekera could make it to the finals of the Olympic Games athletic competition if he clears 2.28m in the qualifying rounds scheduled for Friday. Wijesekera only needs to improve on his Sri Lanka national record by 0.01m, or by one centimetre, to become only the fourth Sri Lankan athlete to make it to a final of Olympic Games after Duncan White (men's 440 yards in London, 1948), Nagalingam Edirveerasingam (men's high jump in Helsinki, 1952) and Susanthika Jayasinghe (women's 200m in Sydney, 2000). Sri Lanka athletic team manager, Commodore Shemal Fernando said the qualifying mark for men's high jump was set at 2.28 at last evening's Managers' meeting so that there could be either eight or 12 finalists, depending on the form shown by athletes. It was at last month's Sri Lanka national championship that Wijesekera cleared 2.27m and qualified to compete in the Olympics. Young Wijesekera, who has already won a scholarship to study at an American University from later this year, improved on his Sri Lanka record to 2.25m at the Asian Grand Prix in Colombo and then to 2.27 at the Sri Lanka nationals within the space of one month. It would not be an impossible hurdle for Wijesekera to bring that up to 2.28m and become only the second Sri Lankan high jumper to make it to an Olympic final. Incidentally, he is being guided by the one and only Sri Lankan high jumper who achieved this feat - Edirveerasingam, who is now residing in the United States. The venue for the Olympic athletic events, which began today, is the main Olympic Stadium in Athens which has a total capacity of 72,015 spectators with air conditioning. It was opened in 1982 and since then, it has been tested at many key international events before it finally had the glory of hosting Olympic Games. It was at this very same venue that Sri Lanka's Susanthika Jayasinghe bagged women's 200m silver medal at the 1997 IAAF World Championship, coming behind Zahanna Pintusevich. The Olympic Stadium is situated 14.5km off the Athletes Village but the thousands of media men here are the most benefited as it is just one km - walking distance, from the Main Press Centre (MPC) in Maroussi, Athens. |
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