Amarasekera fails to qualify for round two

Dinesh Weerawansa reporting from Finland

HELSINKI, Tuesday, Sri Lanka's Prasanna Amarasekera ran far bellow expectations to secure only the fifth place in his heat to crash out of the 10th IAAF World Championships here today.

Running in the unlucky inner lane (8) of men's 400m first round heat six at the Helsinki Olympic Stadium here this afternoon, Amarasekera could not justify his presence as an 'A' grade qualified athlete. He clocked a disappointing 47.11 seconds, far bellow his entry timing of 45.47, under ideal bright sunny weather.

The particular race itself got into an inauspicious start with a foul start made by Gary Kikaya (Congo), but he went on to win the heat six with a timing of 45.88. Had Amarasekera come even closer to his season's beat timing of 45.47, he would have made it to Thursday's semifinals as second-placed Jamaican Linsford Spence returned a timing of only 46.21 in making a direct qualification for the next round.

Amarasekera had the slowest reaction time in his heat and made a desperate attempt to recover, which he was unable to do till the end. Finishing ahead of Amarasekera were Gray (45.88), Spence (46.21), Ofentse Mogawane (46.80 - South Africa), Wilan Louis (46.93 - BAR).

Speaking immediately after the race, Amarasekera said bad weather and lacking on the spot guidance of his coach Sunil Gunawardena contributed to his downfall. "The weather conditions were not ideal for our training. As a result of rain and cold weather, I could not do my training as usual," he said.

He also disclosed that the sprinter was under mental stress as his coach could not come to Finland to guide him when it needed the most. "I requested to have my coach with me on tour. That would have made a huge difference as his presence on the spot to guide me with fine tuning would have had a big impact.

But it was not so and I had to manage with the training schedules given by him back home before I left Sri Lanka," a dejected soldier said.

Amarasekera had a good chance of making it to the semifinals if he had painted his true picture as the slowest to qualify for the last 16 - Hamdon Al Bishi of Saudi Arabia, made it with a time of only 45.88 seconds. The fastest of all seven men's 400m first round heats was No.1 as its first two - Timothy Benjamin of Great Britain (44.85) and Brendon Simpsom of Jamaica (44.98), were two of the three sprinters out of 54 competitors who went under 45 seconds.

Athens Olympics gold medalist and world No.1 in men's 400m, Jeremy Wariner of the USA warmed up for another title with a controlled 45.24 seconds to win heat two while his team mates Andrew Rock (44.98) and Darold Williamson (45.97) won heat four and seven respectively.

Meanwhile, the fastest man of the Helsinki World championships, Justin Gatlin of the USA could not make the ideal start for his golden double as he finished third in first round heat seven of the men's 200m event.

However, his timing of 20.90 seconds was good enough for him to advance to the next round, along with the first two sprinters in his race - Daniel Batman of Australia (20.68) ande Guus Hoogmoed of the Netherlands (20.80). American Tyson Gay (19.99) returned the best timing in men's 200m heats.