Lankans fail again in Doha

Dinesh WEERAWANSA reporting from Qatar

ASIAN GAMES: Heavy rains and gloomy Doha skies welcomed the 15th South Asian Games but most outdoor training schedules were hampered due to wet weather while the Athletes Village mourned the accidental death of a Korean competitor here on Thursday.

Even Sri Lanka athletes, who will have five events lined up for them tomorrow (8), had to confine most of their training activities to indoors due to inclement weather conditions, which are unusual in the Middle East desert.

"We have never experienced rain like this. Normally, we get only a couple of days rain for a whole year. But during the last couple of weeks, we have experienced lot of rain, which is rather strange," a Doha resident, on his way to the Lusail Shooting range, said this morning.

Competitors at the Athletes' Village considered the gloomy weather as a sign of mourning after the death of equestrian Kim Hyung Chil.

The South Korean met an untimely death today after falling from his horse during the individual cross country competition this morning. Father-of-two Kim, 47, from Seoul, was crushed under his mount Bundaberg Black while attempting the eighth fence at Sports City a Temporary Venue in Doha.

The horse is under observation and there are no visible injuries. Kim was the oldest among the Korea equestrian team and won silver in the team competition at the 2002 Asian Games in Busan.

The competition resumed after two-and-a-half hours, following approval by the technical delegate, who inspected the course and the fence following the tragic accident. A one minute silence was observed across all venues and DAGOC has suspended cultural activities in the Athletes' Village.

Edirisingh, Mangala lose

However, the change in the weather pattern did not change Sri Lanka's failures in the Asian Games so far. Sri Lanka's Edirisinghe Senanayake finished 45th out of 49 competitors who fired at the men's 25m standard pistol event. He had a poor aggregate of 516 points while Indian Jaspal Rana finished on top with a neat 574.

South Asian Games gold medallist Mangala Samarakoon of Sri Lanka fared slightly better in securing the 28th place out of 45 competitors in men's 50m rifle three position event. With a 395 in prone, 360 in standing and 380 in kneeling, Samarakoon aggregated 1,135 points.

China's Fu Zhang aggregated 1,170 to finish on top of the qualification round. He fired a near perfect 98 in the final to total 1,268 to take the gold medal.

Mayumi fails again

At the Asian Games swimming competition continued at Aspire pool, Sri Lanka's Mayumi Raheem continued her lean run. Sri Lanka's golden girl at the 10th South Asian Games looked completely off colour against the still competition level as she finished last in women's 50m butterfly.

She clocked 31.78 seconds in heat three, won by Japanese Ayako Doi, who returned a timing of 27.32 seconds.

Sri Lanka's Miniruwani Samarakoon suffered a double blow as she finished last in two of her morning events. She clocked 32.36 in finishing eighth in women's 50m heat four, won by China's Yafei Zhou (26.78).

Samarakoon was also a poor last in women's 200m individual medley heat one won by Singaporean Joscelin Yeo (2:17.60). Samarakoon clocked 2:08.42 to finish more than 31 seconds behind the winner.

Heshan's win not sufficient

There was some consolation for the Lankan camp as Heshan Unamboowe won men's 50m backstroke heat one in 28.57 seconds.

However, of the other three heats, 18 other competitors registered better timings than the Lankan lad, who made a poor exit. The best timing among the 30 competitors in four heats came from China's Kunpeng Ouyang - 25.74 seconds.

Boxers out of semis

At the Aspire Hall, two Sri Lankan boxers were knocked out after their respective quarter final bouts. Japan's Katsukai Susa, competing in blue corner, knocked out Sri Lanka's Chamila Prasad Ariyaratne in the first round of men's 51kg flyweight event.

The Lankan lad suffered a lightening hook from his Japanese opponent and was forced to withdraw when in the second round was just a minute old.

It was a third round knock out for Ariyaratne's team mate, Wasala Wekadapola in men's 64kg light welterweight quarter final bout. Uzbekistani Dilshood Mahmudov was too strong for Wekadapola who were knocked out after one minute and 41 seconds to the third round.

Rowing

At the Doha Games rowing competition, Sri Lanka's Kanishka Jayaratne clocked 4:04.89 to complete the one-km course in men's lightweight single sculls final D, ahead of Iranian Mahmoud Piltan (4:09.64).

The others who won the respective finals were Chongkui Wu of China (3:37.12 in final A), Indian Anil Kumar Mehrolia (3:58.46 in final B) and Kazakhstani Pavel Prikhodko (3:56.31 in final).

Jayaratne's achievement would not take him any further as all four competitors in final A, all three in final B and the winner of final C had better timings that the Lankan lad.

Priyantha last

The Asian Games sailing competition at the Doha Sailing Club saw Sri Lanka's Priyantha Gunawardena finishing last in men's mistral heavy race 5. His team mate Devin De Alwis Gunawardena was placed ninth in the men's men's optimist race 5. Upul Priyantha failed to turn up for the start of men's Mistrial light race 5.

Jude, Dhammika win

At the Sport City courts, Sri Lanka's M. Jude Mahesh Perera and Dhammika Rohan Silva tasted a sweet success. They edged out the home team combination of Mohammed Salem and Mohamed Anber 57-50 after a 55-minute tussle.

It was a good fight back by the Lankan duo who lost the first set 21-23. But they cut lose to produce two back to back productive sets 2-18, 15-5 and with it, turned the match in Sri Lanka's favour.

DOHA, Thursday.