Sri Lanka competes in shooting, tennis and weightlifting today:

Edirisinghe, first Lankan in action

Dinesh WEERAWANSA reporting from China

Olympian Senanayake Edirisinghe will be the first Sri Lankan to be seen in action at the 16th Asian Games at this Southern Chinese city.

Out of 104 sportsmen and women representing Sri Lanka here at the 44-nation Games, shooter Edirisinghe will be the first to come in action when he takes part in men's 50m pistol qualification round at 9 am local time here on Saturday at the Aoti Shooting Range.

Pistol shooting

Edirisinghe, who became the first ever shooter to represent Sri Lanka in pistol shooting at Olympics during the Beijing 2008 Games here in China, is determined to improve his ratings. "Olympics was a good experience and I now aim at firing a better personal score that would take me up in the ladder," he said on the eve of his first event.

Following Edirisinghe's event, athlete turned shooter Mangala Samarakoon will represent Sri Lanka in men's 10m air pistol qualifying round on Saturday.

Sri Lanka's men's tennis team, which includes star Davis Cup player Harshana Godamanna, will be seen in action tomorrow (13). Sri Lanka will meet Saudi Arabia in their qualifying round tie at Aoti Tennis Centre.

The last Sri Lankan competitor to be seen during Saturday's action will be Sangeeth Wijesuriya. The 26-year-old weightlifter is due to take part in men's 56kg Group B event at Dongguan Gymnasium tomorrow (13) afternoon.

Meanwhile, the threat of doping, after several positive cases at the recent Commonwealth Games in India, loomed as over 12,000 competitors are getting ready for the Asian version of the Olympic Games.

Executive director of the Doping Control Commanding Centre, Li Jie said the Guangzhou Asian Games adopts all international standards and procedures to run the doping tests and would ensure a fair and just competition to every athletes.

Doping tests

Jie said that the doping tests were running smoothly to welcome the kick-off of the Guangzhou Asian Games.

Nearly 100 doping tests had been conducted since November 6. The urine and blood samples are sent to the laboratory in the capital Beijing on a daily basis.

"There is no difference between the Chinese and the foreign athletes on doping test.

The Guangzhou Asian Games organising committee (GAGOC) hired the Beijing lab to conduct the tests because it is the nearest licensed lab of the World Anti-Doping Agency (WADA)," Li said.

The WADA had sent a team of experts to monitor the processions from sample pick-ups to the tests in Beijing, and officials of the Olympic Council of Asia (OCA) followed the whole procedure during the Games.

"We are very transparent and the whole procession is open to officials from the WADA and the OCA. They are allowed to inspect all the 34 doping-control offices around the Games. The results of the tests will be handed over to the International Olympic Committee (IOC) directly by the Beijing lab," Li explained.

Competitors

Over 1,500 tests will be conducted during the Games.

These tests will be distributed to athletes of each nation and region based on the number of competitors of each team. China, which has the biggest delegation, will receive the most doping tests, Li said. "We are ensuring the biggest and one of the best doping test tasks in the Asian Games history," Li vowed. GUANGZHOU, Friday.