Sri Lanka in men’s 4 x 400m final

DINESH WEERAWANSA reporting from China

Sri Lanka, after the disqualification of its 100m men’s relay team, the more experienced 4 x 400m team entered the final of the 16th Asian Games athletic competition at the Aoti Main Stadium under lights today.

Despite the setbacks by their 100m relay team, the more experienced 4 x 400m Lankan team ran a season’s best three minutes, 07.52 seconds to secure the third place in their semi-final heat and made it to Friday’s final.

The Lankan 400m relay team comprised Prasanna Sampath Amarasekera, Rohitha Pushpakumara, Uditha Wickremasinghe and Kasun Kalhara Seneviratne.

Japan came first in the race clocking 3:06:53, followed by India (3:07.00), Sri Lanka and South Korea (3:09.49).

Meanwhile, India’s S K Devvarman, the bottom seed, won the gold medal in men’s singles of the tennis competition beating the top seed Denis Istomin of Uzbekistan in straight sets 6-1, 6-2.

Uzbekistan’s attempts for a gold in the women’s singles too was shattered as China’s fourth seeded Shuai Peng beat No. 3 ranked Akqul Amanmuradova 7-5, 6-2.

GUANGZHOU, Tuesday