Sri Lanka wins six more golds

Dinesh Weerawansa

SA GAMES: Hosts Sri Lanka won six more gold medals - five in athletics and one in taekwondo to increase their gold tally to 26, four behind the second-placed Pakistan, on day eight of the 10th South Asian Games yesterday.

The Lankan gold medallists in yesterday's athletic events were Rohan Pradeep Kumara (men's 400,), Kingsly Gunatillake (men's javelin throw), Dulanjalee Ranasinghe (women's high jump) and Padma Nandani Wijesundara (women's discus throw). Sri Lanka also bagged the women's 4 x 100m gold after that blistering anchor lap by Olympic medallists Susanthika Jayasinghe.

Besides the five athletic titles, the latest gold for Sri Lanka was gifted by A.L.G. Samanthi in taekwondo. She came first in women's 47-51 kg fly category while Afghanistan's K. Neela won the silver.

Among the most notable performance on day eight of the eight-nation Games were the golden sprint doubles by Rohan Pradeep Kumara and Susanthika Jayasinghe. Pradeep Kumara won his pet event of men's 400m while Jayasinghe anchored Sri Lanka's women's 4 x 100m relay team to victory, just 24 hours after their 200m gold medals won on the opening day of athletics.

Apart from the gold eight gold medals Sri Lanka has won so far in track and field, the hosts also won two important gold medals in karate-do.

Among the team events, Sri Lanka soccer team has entered tonight's final against Pakistan at Sugathadasa Stadium, who would assure them the gold or silver.

At Matale, Sri Lanka won the bronze medal in hockey, beating Bangladesh by two goals to nil in their third place play-off yesterday. Among the other team sports, Lanka Lankans are in line for a medal for volleyball too. They edged out much fancied Pakistan by three games to two in an exciting decisive game that assured them a medal.

But it was the Lankan athletes who added colour to the Games, winning several key events, though they faced a tough challenge from the Indians.

Schoolgirl Ranasinghe started her jumps at 1.60, together with compatriot Vinodani. Her gold medal-winning clearance of 1.71m came only at the third attempt of that height. Vinodani successfully cleared 1.68m at the first attempt while the Indian bronze medallist passed the same barrier in the second attempt.

Rohan Pradeep underlined his track supremacy with another great race in men's 400m final in 46.33 seconds. But he had to survive a ding dong battle with compatriot Prasanna Amarasekera of Sri Lanka Army.

Rohan Pradeep got off to a relatively good start and was accelerating by the half way mark when the solder challenged. Pradeep was in the lead by the last bend before Amarasekera overtook him with just 75m to go. However, Rohan Pradeep did not give up and regained the lead only just 30m away from finish line. Amarasekera settled for the silver in 46.40.

Sri Lanka's women's team, which included the previous day's women's 200m gold and silver medallists - Susanthika Jayasinghe and Sujani Buddhika, bagged women's 4 x 100m gold. Doing the anchor lap for Sri Lanka was Olympic medallist Jayasinghe who used all her experience and speed to the Lankan team to another gold.

After the first two laps by D.D.P. Priyadharshani and Jani Chathangani Silva, Sri Lanka kept their trump cards - Buddhika and Jayasinghe for the last two.

Their timing of 44.63 accounted for a new SA Games athletic record - the only one at the Colombo Games so far, bettering the previous mark of 44.64 by India in Kanthmandu, 1999. India (46.37) and Pakistan (47.28) won the silver and bronze medals respectively.

Meanwhile, Padma Nandani Wijesundara, that promising discus thrower from Sabaragamuwa, cleared a distance of 47.50m to win the gold without much competition.

Indians Saroj Sihag (45.67) and Priyanka Bhanot (43.29) settled for the silver and bronze medals.

Wijesundara said she was confident that she could go for the gold. "I knew that I had a chance. So I devoted fully and worked hard for my goal.

I am happy that I could make my country proud," she said.

But the biggest disappointment for Sri Lanka was in men's 4 x 100m relay. They were in the lead until the final lap. Though the team finished third, they were disqualified for not changing the baton within the zone by the third and anchor laps.

Thus, India (gold in 40.29 seconds), Pakistan (silver in 40.76) and Afghanistan (bronze in 43.91) shared the medals.

In the absence of the SAG record holder Damayanthi Darsha, Sri Lanka settled for the silver and bronze medals in women's 400m through Menaka Wickremasighe (53.83) and Lasanthi Deepika (55.76), behind the Indian gold medallists Pinki Pramanik (52.54).

The other Indian gold medallists in yesterday's athletic events were Anuradha Biswal (14.28 seconds in women's 100m hurdles), Sourab Vij (17.43m in men's shot putt) and IAAF World championship medallist Anju Bobby George, who registered 6.42m in women's long jump.

Besides the Indians and Sri Lankans who dominated most of the events, the other gold medallists produced on day two were Mohammed Mahfuzar Rahman (14.19 seconds in men's 100m hurdles), Allah Ditta (51.00 seconds in men's 110m hurdles) and Rajendra Bhanari (14 mts and 01.19 sec in men's 5,00m final). At the karate competition of the 10th SA Games, Sri Lanka women's team won the gold medal in the team event.

The Lankan women's team comprised Durga Harshani, R. P. S. Lakmali, A. B. K. Chamindi and V. A. Kathriarachchi. Sri Lanka won two bronze medals in wrestling through A.S.S.D. Kumara (55kg) and M.K.C. Fernando (120kg).