Mixed fortunes for Lankan ruggerites
Samarasinghe accuses umpire
Dinesh Weerawansa reporting from Qatar
ASIAN GAMES: Captain Sanjeewa Jayasinghe scored a hat-trick of tries
as Sri Lanka crushed India by 48 goals to nil in their opening match of
the 15th Asian Games Seven-a-side rugby tournament begun under lights at
Al-Arabi Football Stadium here last night.
But their joy was short lived as they went down to China 5-31 in
their remaining Pool 'B' match at the same venue. Sri Lanka, having thus
missed a medal chance in rugby sevens, will now battle for the fifth
place. They were scheduled to play Hong Kong in their sixth place
play-off match last night.
Earlier on the day, Sri Lanka got off to a good start, thrashing
Asian minnows India 48-0. They connected their points from four goals
and four tries, afterleading 17-0 at the breather.
The Lankans showed no mercy to helpless Indians as they ran down as
many as eight tries, of which half were converted - two by Nalaka
Weerakkody and one each by Fazal Marija and Ashan de Costa.
Joining the Lankan try feast were skipper Jayasinghe (3), full back
Weerakkody (2), De Costa (2) and Marija (1). But when Sri Lanka faced
the real test against China, they cut a sorry figure. China outplayed
Sri Lanka by 31 points (three goals and two tries) to 5 (one try) after
leading 10-0 at 'lemons'.
Zhuan Ku crossed the Lankan line twice while Yang Li, Zhongliang He
and Tao Sun did so once each. Chinese captain Zhiqiang Zhang converted
three of the five tries.
Sri Lanka's IRB referee, Dilroy Fernando officiated the key Pool C
match in which Japan had a good 24-7 win over Taiwan. In the other
preliminary round matches of the Asian Games seven-a-side competition,
South Korea beat Hong Kong 21-7, China beat India 41-0, Taiwan beat
Qatar 82-0 and South Korea beat Thailand 42-0.
Navin points finger at umpire
Sri Lanka's Navin Samarasinghe missed out a place in the quarter
finals of the Asian Games men's singles squash competition. At the
Khalifa International Tennis and Squash Complex, Samarasinghe suffered a
straight set loss at the hands of Pakistani Aamir Khan. Khan, who is
within the top 40 players in the world circuit, took just 23 minutes to
eliminate Samarasinghe 9-2, 9-0, 9-5 and book a place in the quarter
finals, where he would meet Mohammed Azlan Iskander of Malaysia.
"I expected a hard match, but I am quite happy with the way I played.
I could have played better anyway. There was something fishy in the
match. I am not happy with the way umpire did his job. I did not get
some of the lets I surely deserved," the Lankan lad said after his
defeat.
But Khan complemented his opponent. "It is very good. My opponent
played very nice. He is talented. But I played my shots and never gave
him a chance," he said adding "Two weeks ago, I beat him in the first
round of the Pakistan open. I am quite confident. I need more experience
as I am ranked 38th in the world,".
Lankan sailors off colour
At the Lusail Archery Range, South Korean Ok Hee Yun had the better
of Sri Lankan Yashodhara de Silva 111-85 in their women's quarter final
tie of the archery competition.
The Lankan competitors were totally off colour at the Doha Sailing
Club where the Asian Games sailing competition continued for the fifth
successive day. Priyantha Gunawardena was placed last in his Mistral
heavy race 8, which was won by Thailand's Phanuthat Ruamsap. Sri Lanka's
Radheeka Jirasinghe even did not come to the starting point of his
Optimist race 11 for women. Then their team mate Upul Priyantha De Silva
was a poor 'last man' in Mistral race 8.
Sri Lanka's Devin de Alwis Gunawardena could only secure the sixth
place in Optimist race 11 for men. In the Laser Radial open race 10, Sri
Lanka's Janaka Welandagoda finished 10th out of 11 competitors with
Kuwaiti Sami Abdul Salam withdrawing halfway. Indian Rajesh Chowdary won
this race.
Last night's semi final matches of the Asian Games women's football
competition saw Japan and North Korea winning their respective semi
final matches by identical scores at the Qatar Sports Club Stadium.
Japan survived a scoreless first half to beat arch rivals South Korea
by three goals to one. The other semi final game too was a thriller as
North Korea cut lost after a one-all half time tally to score twice in
the second half to win 3-1.
Golf: Sri Lanka finish 11th
Sri Lanka's men's golf team, comprising Tissa Chandradasa, Amrit de
Soysa, Mithum Perera and Kandasamy Prabagaran, finished 11th out of 17
teams that took part at the Asian Games golf championship concluded at
the Doha Golf Club greens. They had a total of 892.
South Korea totalled 836 to secure the gold medal. In the second
place for the silver was India (849), followed by Taiwan (850) - the
bronze medallist.
South Korean Kyung Tae Kim had a relatively poor final round of 70,
but his impressive rounds on day one and three were good enough to earn
the gold medal in the individual championship. Sri Lanka's Prabagaran
finished 28th while national champion Mithun Perera ended 31st. Tissa
Chandradasa (41st) and Amrit de Soysa (47th) finished at the bottom.
Doha, Monday |