SLRFU requests for replacement

Dinesh WEERAWANSA reporting from Qatar

ASIAN GAMES: Sri Lanka is making an attempt for eleventh hour entry of veteran Nalaka Weerakkody to its seven-a-side rugby team for the 15th Asian Games.

An official of the Sri Lanka NOC said today that the rugby officials back home have made a request to include Weerakkody as a replacement.

Former Sri Lanka veteran full back was not in the original squad but was brought in later as a replacement to injured Mohammed Sherrif, who was reported to have sustained an injury during the second trial in Kandy recently.

Sri Lanka squad for the Asian Games, captained by Sanjeewa Jayasinghe, also include Sajith Mallikarachchi, Ashean Karthelis, Dilanka Wijesekera, Amjad Buksh, Ashan de Costa, Anuradha Dharmatillake, Lalindra Rodrigo, Saliya Kumara and Chamara Vithanage.

The selection of the Lankan rugby squad looked a controversial issue. There were many allegations on the selection process. There have been allegations on instances were players with regular attendance became victims to make way for half fit players with poor attendance at practices.

However, the Lankan rugby officials have denied all charges and said the selections have been made 'purely on merit'.

"The SLRFU has made a last minute request to include Nalaka Weerakkody at an expense of an injured player. We are taking the matter up with the organisers today but we cant tell anything right now. We are in the process of making a fresh entry for Weerakkody" an official of the NOC said from Athletes' Vllage this afternoon. Sri Lanka's 15-member seven-a-side rugby team is due to arrive here later this week.

Tennis

Meanwhile, Sri Lanka Davis Cup player Harshana Godamanne registered an exciting 7-6, 2-6, 6-2 win over Sanchai Ratiwatana but his effort was not good enough to prevent his side losing to Thailand 1-2 in their men's team event tie.

The first single saw Rajiv Rajapakse suffering a humiliating 2-6, 2-6 defeat at the hands of Danai Udochoke. In the decisive doubles match, Udochoke and Ratiwatana thrashed Godamanne and Rajapakse in just 32 minutes 6-0, 6-0 to win the tie.

Judo

Amongst the few bright sport from the Sri Lankan camp was the success of judoka Susantha Attanayake.

The 26-year-old lad from Kandy beat Pakistani Karamat Butt to advance to the next round of men's 73kg event.

Cycling

Sri Lanka's South Asian Games gold medallist, Sriyalatha Wickremasinghe finished 21st in the 113-km women's cycling road race worked off this afternoon. She clocked three hours, 11 minutes and 39 seconds to finish five minutes and 29 seconds behind the overall winner - Mayuko Hagiwara of Japan - 3:06.10, who bagged the gold medal. China's Na Zhao (3:07.38) survived an exciting photo finish with many others to secure the silver.

Snooker

In snooker, Sri Lanka's J.W.P. Wedamulla lost to Indian Yasin Reza 55-51, 62-38, 69-21.

Swimming

The Lankan swimmers continued their pathetic performance for the third successive day at the Asian Games pool.

The best out of the lot was Daniel Lee who secured third place in men's 50m free style heat two. He clocked 25.16 seconds to finish behind Indian Ankur Poseria (24.70) and Moyssara Elaarag of Qatar (24.94).

Imara Fahim clocked five minutes and 10.58 seconds to finish last in women's 400m individual medley first round heat two, which was won by Wenrui Zhu of China (4:16.59).

Adding to the failures of Lankan swimmers here was Miniruwani Samarakoon, who too finished last in her women's 200m butterfly stroke first round heat one. Samarakoon clocked a relaxed 2:40.71 when South Korean Hye Ra Choi won in style - 2:11.09.

There was another 'last man' in the Lankan swimming team. In men's 200m backstroke first round heat one, Sri Lanka's Heshan Unanboowe finished last. He returned an unimpressive timing of 2:18.85 while Japan's Ryosuke Irie won in 2:02.27.

Sailing

In sailing, Sri Lankan combination of Kamal Kumarapperuma and H.M.A. Amaradasa returned a timing of four minutes, 34.67 seconds in eliminating from the semi finals of men's lightweight double sculls event. Uzbekistan came first in this event. Sri Lanka's

Kanishka Jayaratne was the last out of three competitors who took part in men's lightweight single sculls event with 3:44.55. Vietnam's Hao Phan came first with a timing of 3:26.01.

Shooting

At the Asian Games shooting range, the Lankan fate was no different. South Asian Games gold medallist Mangala Samarakoon finished 37th out of 40 competitors at the qualification round of men's 50m rifle event with an aggregate of 576 points.

China's Gang Liu was the best with a perfect 595. He went on to win the gold medal with a final score of 696.1 points.

Sri Lanka's Devika Ranasinghe managed only 27th place out of 40 competitors who fired in the qualifying round of women's 50m rifle prone event. Olga Dovgun of Kazakhstan aggregated 591 to end on top.

Beach Volleyball

The beach volleyball competition saw Sri Lanka tasting a sweet success as Dhammika Rohan Silva and Jude Mahesh beat Indian pair of Jameeluddin Mohammed and

Shashidhur Tilkam 57-53 in an exciting 64-minue thriller.

Boxing

Sri Lanka had another shattered dream as much looked forward to Kamal Sameera lost his mean's 57kg featherweight preliminary round bout to Galib Jafarov on points 14:26.

Weightlifting

Thailand's Pawina Thongsuk accounted for the gold medal in the women's 63kg weightlifting competition after recording a world record lift of 142kg in the clean and jerk with her third and final attempt at the Al-Dana Sports Club.

He could not boast of of all three world records in the 63kg division after exceeding Russia's Svetlana Shimkova's previous best of 141kg set earlier this year, and she can now add what had so far been an elusive Asian Games gold medal to her growing collection.

The 27 year-old Thai's success marks only the second time in Asian Games history that China have failed to win gold in women's weightlifting - the first time being at Busan 2002 when DPR Korea's Ri Song Hui took home the gold in the 53kg event.

Handball

India eased to victory over Macau, China 31-14 in a group A match of the men's handball tournament at the Al-Gharrafa Indoor Hall.

Naya Chandra Singh Rungbam netted 12 for the victors, who slipped into cruise control after logging a 17-5 half-time lead. As well as Rungbam, they owed much of their success to goalkeeper Ratish Kumar Pandey who saved a remarkable 14 of the 24 shots that came his way.

For Macau, China, Chau Hong Cheung and Kuok Weng Hang topped their scoring charts with three apiece. They at least improved on their opening tie of the tournament, when they were torn apart by Bahrain 53-11. India too made a vast improvement, having lost their opener 48-19 to hosts Qatar.

Chess

China's Grandmaster Bu Xiangzhi tops the table of the men's Swiss rapid chess after the seventh round delivered his fifth consecutive win.

With his win in the first game and his defeat against Bangladeshi International Master Enamul Hossain in the second game, Xiangzhi now has six match points, putting him on par with competition No 2 Murtas Kazhgaleyev of Kazakhstan, also at six points. Xiangzhi tops the table because he has faced tougher opponents so far.

Big surprise in the chess is that the tournament's top seed, Sasikiran Krishnan of India, is already 1.5 points adrift of the leader after losing his second game of tournament today, this time against against Utut Adianto Wahjuwidajat of Indonesia, who is seeded No 8 in the competition. Sasikiran was the favourite, but his hopes of gold will recede if he loses another game.

Badminton

China swept through to the final of the women's badminton with another commanding performance at ASPIRE Hall. They crushed South Korea 3-0 in their semifinal clash without conceding a single game.

Indeed since Zhang Ning lost her opening game to Mew Choo Wong of Malaysia before prevailing 2-1 in their 5-0 victory in the opening match, no Chinese women's player has lost a game in the competition.

Monday, DOHA.