Clarke fastest athlete in Delhi C Games

Shehan fails to reach 100m final:

Chintahan WASALA reporting from New Delhi

Jamaica’s Lerone Clarke, was crowned as the fastest man at the 19th version of the Commonwealth Games clocking 10.12 seconds in the men’s 100m final at the Jawaharlal Nehru Stadium in new Delhi yesterday evening. The member of champion 4 X 100m relay team at the 2009 Berlin World Championships, cruised towards the finish line, with second placed England’s Lewis Mark Anthony (10.20 seconds) and third Trinidad and Tobago’s Aaron Armstrong (10.24 seconds).

Just before that, Australia’s Sally Pearson equaled her seasons best of 11.28 seconds to be crowned as the fastest women sprinter when she won the women’s 100m final.

Earlier, Lankan sprint sensation Shehan Ambepitiya was placed eighth in the men’s 100m semi final when he clocked 10.48 seconds in a race which saw the participation of some of the best in the sprinters, including the bronze medalist Aaron Armstrong who was placed first. Shehan clocked his personal best of 10.31seconds in the first round on Wednesday.

Chandrika Subhashini Rasnayake running in lane 8 ran her seasons best in the women’s 400m semi-final clocking 52.97 seconds, but failed to qualify for today’s final. She was placed fourth though she fought hard towards the end of the race.

Running on the eighth lane, Chandrika had the disadvantage of not seeing the runners behind her till the first two bends, she was a bit worried. “I had to run in the eight lane, according to my timing at the heats, (53.01 seconds). If I had a better time and was in a better position, I would have done far better” said Chandrika just after the race.

Prasanna Sampath Amarasekera booked a place in the men’s 400m semi-final when he recorded 47.50 seconds and finished fourth in the first heat of the first round.

Another competitor in the Sri Lankan contingent who is looking for a place on the podium, Manjula Kumara qualified for the finals of the men’s high jump yesterday.

Swimming:

Madhavi Kaushalya wins 50m free style heat

Madhavi Kaushalya kept Sri Lanka’s hopes alive of a medal when she qualified to compete in second round of the women’s 50m free style event of the Commonwealth Games swimming competition continued in New Delhi yesterday.

In a day marred by several poor performance by Sri Lankans, especially swimmers Condrad Francis, Heshan Unamboowe and Gihara Amarasinghe, young Kaushalya was the only bright spot to win her women’s 50m freestyle heat 2 in 22. 55 seconds. Finishing second was her team mate Lihini Tashia Dias in 22.96 seconds, followed by Kristie Miller (30.45 seconds).

Francis, Unamboowe and Amarasinghe poor performerse

Condrad Francis joined the miserable performers list of Sri Lankan swimmers when he finished sixth in the men’s 50m breaststroke qualifying round of the Commonwealth Games in New Delhi.

Competing in heat four of the men’s 50m breaststroke qualifying round, Francis recorded an unimpressive time of 31.84 seconds to finish sixth. The race was won by New Zealander Mark Snyders in 28.15 seconds. Francis continued his poor show in the men’s 100m butterfly qualifying round, finishing seventh and the last in his heat 3 with a poor timing of one minute, 0.22 seconds.

Compatriot Heshan Unamboowe too joined the bandwagon with another pathetic performance, this time in the men’s 100m back stroke qualifying round. He finished fifth in heat two with a time of only 59.34 seconds.

In women’s 50m back stroke heat 3 won by Elizabeth Loh in 28.78 seconds, Sri Lanka’s Gihara Amarasinghe finished last (eighth) with a poor timing of 33.87 seconds.

Heshan Unamboowe, Sri Lanka’s swimming sensation got past another record when he finished with a time of 58.96 seconds, and was on the 14th overall position. But he finished the first round with a time of 59.35 seconds. Conrad Francis was placed sixth in the men’s 50m backstroke first round clocking 31.84 seconds. Meanwhile Gihara Amarasinghe also missed the chance of finding a slot in the next round as she was placed sixth with a time of 33.84 seconds in the 50m backstroke qualification round.

In the Synchronized Swimming - Duet Women Technical Routine Qualification round, Elisha Gomes and Dehara Keteapearachchi were placed sixth with 31.5 points. The Lankan duo, the youngest at the competition, scored 63.5 points in the Duet free Routine event and was placed sixth.

Table Tennis Lankan lose

Meanwhile the Sri Lanka Table Tennis mens team lost to Scotland 3-0 and the womens team was beaten by Nothern Ireland 3-1.

Badminton:

Singapore crushes Sri Lanka 5-0

Singapore crushed Sri Lanka by five games to nil in their Commonwealth Games mixed team event of the badminton championship worked off in New Delhi.

It was a pathetic performance by the Lankan shuttlers who lost all five games in the tie against Singapore. Sri Lanka’s No.1 Niluka Karunaratne narrowly lost to Liang Derek Wong by one set to two 16-21, 21-15, 16-21. Songapore’s Vanessa Neo and Chayut Triyachart beat Dinuka Karunaratne and Chandrika de Silva in straight sets 21-7, 21-16.

Karunaratne brothers Dinuka and Niluka lost to Singapore combination of Hendri Kurniawan Saputra and Hendra Wijaya 18-21, 14-21. Shinta Muliya Sari and Lei Yao beat Chandrika de Silva and Thilini Jayasinghe 21-9, 21-6. Jayasinghe lost the other singles match to Ming Tian Fu 11-21, 13-21.

Lankan shuttlers beat the Jamaicans comprehensively 5-0 at the Siri Forts Sports Complex to end their team events record at the Delhi Games record as 4-2. So the Lankan shuttlers are out of the team competition and awaiting the singles which starts on Saturday. Sri Lanka has high hopes on the Mens singles and doubles and the team sources say that Niluka Karunaratne is confident of reaching the top slots.

Media face problems

Meanwhile the Local and International media had to face many difficulties when entering the sports venues due to a malfunction of the system that reads the bar-cord of the accreditation passes given to all athletes and officials, media personnel were not allowed to enter the venues on several occasions.

Minister in village

The Minister of Sports C B Ratnayake met the Sri Lankan contingent had a brief visit to the Games Village in Akshardhan, near the Yamuna River and wished them good luck. He also met the Indian Minister of Sports and congratulated India for organizing such a huge event.

Minister Ratnayake said that measures will be taken to look after the players and athletes who perform well at the Delhi Games, specially the medal winners, and will give support for proper training programs, sponsorships etc. “This is just the beginning. We will target for better achievements in the upcoming years, specially the big events, 2012 and 2016 Olympics. To do just that, proper plans will be made soon as possible” he added.