Lankans win six medals

Chinthana Wasala in Thailand

Sri Lankans were able to pick up one Gold, two Silver and three Bronze medals at the conclusion of the first leg of the Asian Grand Prix meet 2008 which was held at the Thamasat University Stadium in Pathum Thani in Thailand yesterday.

Prasanna Sampath Amarasekera was the only gold winner for Sri Lanka on the first leg of the Games when he won the men’s 400m clocking 46.89secs for the event.

Sri Lanka once again proved their supremacy in the men’s 400m event as they were able to take away both Gold and silver medals in the same event. Rohitha Pushpakumara (47.19 secs) too followed Amarasekera very closely to win the Silver ahead of K. M. Binu from India who was placed third.

The men’s 400m relay in which Sri Lanka had high hopes, turned out to be a bad one for them. The Indians took the advantage of the lead of the first lap to win the race in 03 mins 07.26 secs. Lankans were placed second behind India who finished in 03 mins 10.91 secs.

In the women’s 400m, Chandrika Subhashini was placed third. Full credit should go to her.

She was included in the start list only on the previous day when the Lankan team manager Sunil Gunawardena negotiated with the organizers following the absence of two Chinese athletes for her event and to accommodate her into the two blank spots.

The women’s 400m relay saw no Sri Lankans inside the first three slots as they were placed fourth.

Umanga Surendra who timed 10.55 sec. had to satisfy with the third place in the men’s 100m behind the winner Wibowo Suryo of Indonesia (10.42 sec.) and Xing Yanah of China (10.43 sec.)

The women’s 100m saw the South Asian short distance queen Premila Priyadarshani losing all her pride when she was placed 6th (12.02 sec.) behind Kazakhstan’s Guzel Khubbueva who won the race easily with a fine performance clocking 11.44 sec.

The next episode of the Asian Grand Prix will be held at the King of Thailand’s 80th Birthday Celebration Stadium in Korat (Nakon Ratchasina) which is also known as the SEA Games Stadium on Thursday. (Bangkok, Monday).