Athletics - one of Sri Lanka's brightest medal prospects

Dinesh WEERAWANSA reporting from Qatar

ASIAN GAMES: Sri Lanka athletic team, led by the overall captain Susanthika Jayasinghe, is due to arrive here on Monday. The Chef-de-mission of the Sri Lanka Contingent, Dian Gomes said athletics is one of Sri Lanka's brightest medal prospects at the 44-nation Games.

High jumper Manjula Kumara Wijesekera arrived here on Thursday and was the proud Sri Lankan flag bearer at Friday's spectacular opening ceremony.

Wijesekera was called in to carry the Lion flag in place of the overall captain Jayasinghe, who is recovering from a viral flu, delayed her departure by five days.

Sri Lanka's acting chef-de-mission Maxwell de Silva said Sri Lanka should make every endeavour to make their presence felt in Doha. The strong 227-member Lankan contingent will be competing in 24 of the 39 disciplines in the Games proper.

But the absence of some of their seasoned athletes would put extra pressure on the contingent in their search for Asian glory.

The most notable absentees are Damayanthi Darsha and Sugath Tillakaratne who have shared six medals, including four golds, during the last three Games since 1994.

Nevertheless, the Lankan officials are confident that Sri Lanka would maintain the form shown at the last two Games in Bangkok and Busan.

Sri Lanka will face a tough task in capitalising on their performance at the last two Games. Thanks to the superlative performances of Darsha, Jayasinghe and Sugath Tillakaratne, Sri Lanka has won five gold medals at the last two Games.

With Darsha and Tillakaratne out of Doha Games due to injuries and Jayasinghe just recovering from Chikungunya flu, it would be a tall order for Sri Lanka.

On the other hand, China will play all their trump cards and experiment their products before the 2008 Olympics in Beijing.

Competing at their last Asian Games before hosting the next Olympic Games, China will be the superpower at Doha Games. With countries like Japan and Korea joining in, the 15th Asian Games athletic competition is going to be a keenly contested one.

India, after that recent performances by long jumper Anju Bobby George, has high hopes on Navpreet Singh Cheema, the men's shot putter.

The 27-year-old lad booked his ticket to Doha after winning the gold at the recent Indian National Championships in Chennai, where he launched the hefty iron sphere out to 18.93m.

He won the silver medal at the Asia Track and Field Championships with 18.97m four years ago and repeating the feat in 2005 with a mighty 19.40m.

However, with the likes of Sultan Mubarak Al-Hebshi (Saudi Arabia), Zhang Qi (China) and Khaled Habesh al-Suwaidi (Qatar) all lying in wait in Doha, Cheema has some stiff opposition ahead of him.

Meanwhile, Chen Yanqing of China came out of retirement to set five world weightlifting records here in Doha. She convincingly won the 58kg women's event at Al-Dana Banquet Hall and clinched China's fourth consecutive weightlifting gold medal.

Chen, the 2004 Olympic champion, opened the snatch portion of the competition with a lift of 103kg. She then hoisted 108kg on her second attempt and raised 111kg on her third attempt to beat the pervious snatch world record of 110kg set in 2003 by Wang Li, also from China.

The 27-year old struggled in the clean portion of the clean and jerk, but managed to set a total of four world records in three lifts.

In her first attempt in the clean and jerk Chen hoisted 131kg for a total of 242kg, 1kg over Chinese compatriot Gu Wei's total world record. On her second attempt, she lifted 137kg to set a new total world record of 248kg.

In the third and final attempt, Chen struggled mightily to get the bar to the clean position, before finally raising 140kg above her head. She received three white lights from the judges but, more importantly, Chen picked up two new world records - 140kg in the clean and jerk and 251kg in the total.

Her nearest competitors both lifted a total of 224kg.

Wandee Kameaim of Thailand lifted 98kg in the snatch and 126kg in the clean and jerk to the delight of some extremely vocal Thai supporters. Pak Hyon Suk of DPR Korea produced an upset to lift 97kg in the snatch and 127kg in the clean and jerk.

Even though they both lifted 224kg, Kameaim took the silver and Pak claimed the bronze on the grounds that Pak weighs 0.33kgh more than Kameaim Japan beat Taiwan to take the gold medal in the men's soft tennis team competition.

The Japanese had to come from behind to take the title. Double act Shigeo Nahahori and Tsuneo Takagawa beat Lin shun Wu and Yeh Chia Lin in a magnificent spectacle for the sport in the deciding rubber. The Japanese duo took the decisive match five sets to three, with their incisive spin on the ball outfoxing Taiwan.