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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

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