Sri Lankans storm into three finals

Manjula in high jump, Prasanna and Subashini in men’s and women’s 400m:

Dinesh Weerawansa Reporting From China

Former Asian Championship gold medallist Manjula Kumara Wijesekera, along with sprinters Prasanna Sampath Amarasekera and Chandrika Subashini stormed to the finals of their respective events as Sri Lanka made its presence felt on the opening day of the athletic competition at the 16th Asian Games at Aoti Main Stadium here today.

Following high jumper Wijesekera’s leap of 2.15m in the morning to make it to the final 12 of his pet event, 400m specialists Amarasekera and Subashini had two blistering performances in their respective men’s and women’s heats. More importantly, both Amarasekera and Subashini ran their season’s best timings, giving an early indication of what would be on store for Monday’s men’s and women’s 400m finals.

Running under lights before a packed stadium on Sunday night, Subashini clocked a season’s best 53.22 seconds to enter the final. Of the two women’s 400m heats, this was the most competitive one and progressed in terrific speed as Marina Maslyonko of Kazakhstan ran a season’s best 52.35 to finish first. Apart from Maslyonko and Subashini, Japan’s Asami Chiba, who finished second of this heat one, too clocked a season’s best 52.66 seconds. Finishing third slightly ahead of the Lankan lass was Indian Manjeet Kaur with 53.13.

“I am happy with my performance. I ran in lane seven and had to take early advantage.

I did just that and was able to record my best timing this season. My aim is to run an all out and win a medal tomorrow,” a determined Subashini after her event said.

Twenty minutes after Subashini’s dream run, former Asian Championship gold medallist Amarasekera regained his lost form with another power-packed performance. He got off to a good start and came second in his men’s 400m heat two, clocking a season’s best 46.35 seconds. Had Amarasekera not relaxed slightly in the last 100m, he would have gone past Saudi Arabian Ismail Alsibyani who came first with a personal best timing of 46.25. Japan’s Yasuke Ishitsuka (46.66) came third, followed by Indian Mortaja Shaka (47.75).

Amarasekera said he is happy to return to the big league after two years and regain his old form. “It was nice to make a come back and perform well, register my season’s best. I think I could win a medal here. My aim is to do something around 46.1 and win a medal,” said Amarasekera with a lot of expectations in Monday’s men’s 400m final. It was way back in 1998 that Sri Lanka last won an Asian Games men’s 400m gold medal through Sugath Tillakaratne.

Earlier this morning, high jumper Wijesekera gave a dream start to Sri Lanka’s medal hopes in athletics when he qualified for men’s high jump finals. Competing in the qualifying round of group A, Wijeskera cleared 2.15m to enter the final.

Starting his jumps at 2.10m with a first time sailing, Wijesekera was unsuccessful in his first attempt to clear 2.15m.

But Sri Lanka’s champion high jumper recovered quickly and made no mistake in his second attempt at 2.15m. In fact, all seven athletes who made it to the final from group A, cleared 2.15m each, four of them in their first attempts, two (including Wijesekera) in second attempts and Libya’s Jen Calud Rabbath in his third attempt.

Sri Lanka’s Nalin Priyantha, bronze medallist at the 2010 South Asian Games in Dhaka clearing 2.13m, was unable to qualify for the final of the men’s high jump. Competing in Group B, he finished last with a jump of only 2.00m, which he achieved in only his second attempt. All his three attempts to clear 2.05m were unsuccessful. Even if he had done so, he wouldn’t have made it to the finals as Syrian Majed Gazal’s 2.10m too was not good enough for a place in Tuesday’s final.

There are 12 finalists in the men’s high jump final, in which Wijesekera is scheduled to take his jumps as the fifth competitor.

China accounted for the first gold medal that was on offer at the 16th Asian Games athletic competition which started today. Hao Wang clocked a season’s best timing of one hour, 20 minutes and 50 seconds to take the gold medal in men’s 20km race walking. His team mate Yafel Chu took the silver in 1:21.57, followed by South Korea Hyunsub Kim, the bronze medallist in 1:22.47.

Hosts China strengthened their grip with a gold medal in women’s shot put as Ling Li cleared a personal best 19.94m to finish first with her team mate Ligiiao Gong (19.67) taking the silver. India produced its first athletic gold medallist of the Guangzhou 2010 Games when Peeja Sreedharan registered a personal best 31 minutes, 50.47 seconds to finish first in men’s 10,000m final.

His team mate Kavita Raut clocked a personal best 31:51.44 to take the silver medal. The gold medal in men’s hammer throw was won by Dilshod Nazarov of Tajikistan, with a clearance of 76.44m. Mahboob Ali Hasan Mahboob of Bahrain won the gold medal in men’s 5,000m, clocking 13 minutes and 47.86 seconds.

Wijekoon in action

Middle distance runner Chaminda Wijekoon, one of Sri Lanka’s brightest medal prospects in athletics, will be seen in action in the men’s 1,500m first round heats scheduled for Monday morning. Wijekoon has been one of the most successful athletes in Sri Lanka in recent times, having won the gold medal of his pet event at the last South Asian Games in Dhaka earlier this year.

He has successful competition experience here in Guangzhou too, having won the silver medal at the last Asian Championships with a timing of three minutes, 47.01 seconds.

Monday will be the second day of the track and field competition that would decide the fastest man and the fastest woman of the 16th Asian Games. The day’s schedule will include six finals – men’s pole vault, women’s hammer throw, women’s 400m, men’s 400m, women’s 100 and men’s 100.

China beat SL in Rugby 7s

Hosts China humbled Sri Lanka by 26 points to 5 in their Asian Games seven-a-side rugby championship match played at University Town main Stadium this evening. China collected their points from three goals and a try while Sri Lanka managed to score a solitary try which went unconverted.

But exchanges were even in the first half as Sri Lanka trailed 5-7 at the short whistle of referee Azhar Yousuf of Singapore. But China cut loose in the second half and ran down three more tries to shatter Lankan’s hopes altogether. Vishva Jayasinghe scored the solitary try for Sri Lanka.

Radhika Hettiarachchi’s men will now meet South Korea and India in Monday’s remaining preliminary round games of their pool ‘B’. In other qualifying round matches played today, South Korea beat India 43-5, Hong Kong beat Malaysia 38-10 and Thailand beat Mongolia 52-0.

HK beat Lanka in squash

Sri Lanka suffered a humiliating three-nil defeat at the hands of Hong Kong in the team event of the squash championship. Chun Ming Au took only 17 minutes to thrash Gihan Suwaris in the first singles match 11-4, 11-8, 11-0. In the second match, Ho Yin Lee had a similar straight sets win over Navin Samarasinghe 11-7, 11-5, 11-7. The third match of the tie saw Yu Shun Kwong beating Binura Jayasuriya 11-9, 11-3, 11-7.

In badminton, Markis Kido and Hendra Setiawan of Indonesia won the gold medal in men’s doubles, beating Koo Kien Keat and Tan Boon Heong of Malaysia by two sets to one in the final.

Sri Lanka suffered another blow when Niranjala Senanayake lost to Thailand’s Tassamale Thongjan on a 0:8 points decision in their women’s 57-60kg boxing bout.

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Lankans in action today

Following Sri Lankan competitors will be seen in action on the eleventh day of the 16th Asian Games in China on Monday:

Athletics – Chaminda Wijekoon in men’s 1,500m first round heat 1 at Aoti Main Stadium.

Archery – Sri Lanka v. China men’s team event qualifier at Aoti Archery Range.

Cycling – Lakshman Wijeratne in men’s individual road race at Triathlon Venue.

Rugby – Men’s preliminary round matches of the seven-a-side tournament – Sri Lanka v South Korea and Sri Lanka v India at University Town main Stadium.