Manjula Kumara Lanka's flag bearer at Asian Games

Dinesh WEERAWANSA

GAMES: Asian championship gold medallist Manjula Kumara Wijesekera will be the Sri Lankan flag bearer at the opening ceremony of the 15th Asian Games in Doha on December 1.

The US-based champion high jumper has been offered the rare honour after sprinter Susanthika Jayasinghe, the overall captain of the strong 227-member Sri Lanka contingent, caught a viral flu.

She is currently warded at a leading private hospital in Colombo and is gradually recovering from Chikungunya.

The National Olympic Committee yesterday decided to name Wijesekera as the stand-in captain for the opening ceremony of the 44-nation Games.

The NOC officials earlier planned to have either Rohan Pradeep Kumara Fernando or Prasanna Amarasekera, the men's 400m specialists, as the Lankan flag bearer in the absence of Jayasinghe.

However, both these sprinters have opted to stay back and leave only on December 4 with the Sri Lanka athletic team. Under the circumstances, the NOC decided to let Wijesekera carry the Lion flag at the mega opening of the Asian version of the Olympics. The 15-day Asian sporting spectacular is due to get underway in the Qatar capital of Doha next Friday (1).

Though the first batch of the 227-member Sri Lanka contingent would leave for Doha on Friday (30), the athletes will depart only on December 4, giving a few more days for Jayasinghe to recover.

Though the Athletic Association of Sri Lanka (AASL) and the Sports Medicine Department (SMD) officials are optimistic of Jayasinghe's eleventh hour presence in Doha, knowledgeable personalities in track and filed circles expressed doubts over Jayasinghe's full fitness before the Games.

But the AASL has still kept their options open and would not name any replacements for Jayasinghe or the other three athletes who have already withdrawn from the competition - Damayanthi Darsha, Sugath Tillakaratne and J.M.S. Weerasuriya.

"We are not naming any replacements as we have already fielded entries by name beyond our quota. Hence, we can not name any replacements even after the withdrawal of the three athletes," the AASL President Dervin Perera said.

Perera said the AASL is looking forward to Jayasinghe's presence in Doha.

He said Jayasinghe has made a reasonable progress during the last 24 hours and could recover well in time before the athletic team's departure on December 4. "I think she should be able to recover. The doctors have said she could catch up with vitamins and be fit for the Games," he said.

Even the Director General of the SMD, Dr. Geethanjana Mendis too endorsed Perera's views.

"We are monitoring her situation carefully. We will make every endeavour to have her back in the team. I hope she should be able to make it," he said.

Yet, there are reasonable doubts over the full fitness level of the 31-year-old Sydney Olympic medallist. AASL President Perera too agreed that Jayasinghe may not be fully geared for a key event like 100m.

Asked about the possibilities of Jayasinghe gaining the full fitness level, her former coach turned Sri Lanka athletic chief said Jayasinghe could still be at her best in her pet event of 200m though the same could not be predicted for 100m.

Meanwhile, swimmer Andrew Abeysinghe, the Sri Lankan double gold medallist at the recent 10th South Asian Games in Colombo, has been forced to pull out of Doha Games.

As exclusively stated in our columns yesterday, a problem with Abeysinghe's passport has forced the US-based prodigy to skip Asian Games.

Informed sources said Abeysinghe's passport is due to expire in two weeks time and that the 15-year-old dual citizen is unable to obtain a new passport in a short period of time. Officials said his father Manoj Abeysinghe has already confirmed his unavailability.