Susanthika vows to make a comeback

Chris DHAMBARAGE reporting from Bangkok

ATHLETICS: Sydney Olympic Games bronze medallist Susanthika Jayasinghe today vowed to make a comeback after she had failed to make an impact in the first leg of the Asian Grand Prix Series worked off at the National Stadium in Bangkok.

The 30 year old sprinter was pushed to the second place with a timing of 23.45 seconds in the women's 200 metres event and decided to skip the remaining two events of the Asian Grand Prix Series to be worked off in Bangalore on May 22 and Pune on May 26 respectively.

Khubbieva Guzel of Uzbekistan won the race clocking 23.29 seconds. Jayasinghe said that her failure was only a minor setback and is quite determined to finish as the number one athlete in Asia before the end of this year.

She was targeting the Asian Games to be held in Doha Qatar and the South Asian Federation Games which will be staged in Colombo in August this year.

Jayasinghe believed that if she had the services of a good physio before the race here then the result would have been completely different.

Jayasinghe of course arrived in Bangkok fresh after having completed a sprint double at the recent UCA international meeting in Los Angeles where she won both the women's 100 metres (11.37 seconds) and the women's 200 metres (23.11 seconds) respectively.

Meanwhile Rohan Pradeep Kumara Fernando said that he is determined to make a clean sweep after having won the men's 400 metres event with a timing of 45.81 seconds.

He finished ahead of his countryman Prasanna Sampath Amarasekera who was placed second clocking 46.42 seconds. Fernando said that he was quite pleased with the timing despite the wet weather conditions and the short preparations ahead of this meet.

The Sri Lanka team managed by Badra Gunawardena left Bangkok today in preparation for the second leg of the Asian Grand Prix Series to be held in Bangalore India on May 22 and the third and final leg in Pune on May 26.