Saving grace by Darsha, Manjula

BY DINESH Weerawansa

DAMAYANTHI Darsha and Manjula Kumara Wijesekera turned Sri Lanka's disgrace in to grace by bagging gold medals in their respective events on the final day of the Asian Athletic Championships concluded in Incheon, South Korea yesterday.

Following the disappearance of three Sri Lankan athletes on the first two days of the championships, Sri Lanka rebuilt its image by the final day to finish sixth in the overall final medals standings with two gold medals, two silver medals and a bronze.

Running in her first major international meet after a long lapse, Darsha made a welcome return to the track winning a much needed gold in the women's 200m in a time of 23.21 secs.

After recovering from a knee injury, which badly affected her career during the last two years, Darsha decided to switch back to her 200m event from 400m.

Sri Lanka's other gold medal for the day came from Wijesekera who cleared 2.27m in the men's high jump final. It was a great come back by the two Lankan athletes - Darsha after recovering from a leg injury after two years and Wijesekera after his dismal performance in Finland.

Moreover, it was vital one for Sri Lanka after the shameful act committed by two of its sprinters and a hurdler after decamping.

Sri lanka's third medal for the day came in men's 4 x 400m relay as the previous day's 400m silver medallist Prasanna Amarasekera anchored his team to another silver.

Sri Lanka men's team clocked three minutes 04.12 seconds to secure the silver behind Japan. Rohan Pradeep Kumara, Rothitha Pushpakumara and Manura Lanka formed the rest of the quartet.

However, Amarasekera missed out a possible third medal when he was placed fifth in men's 200m final with a timing of 21.12 seconds. China finished on top while Japan were placed second. In the third place was Qatar, followed by India, Saudi Arabia and Sri Lanka.