Air Force Cycle Tour 2012:

Army wins final stage

Yasaratne GAMAGE

Soldier Lakshman Wijeratne won the stage three of Air Force Cycle Tour 2012 after a tough competition from his team mates Meemanage Perera and Sameera Chaturanga who finished second and third at Air Force Headquarters on Saturday . The Army took control of the third day and did not allow Sri Lanka Air Force cyclists to dominate as they did in earlier stages.

Lakshman cycled the Km 144.1 distant race in 3 hours and 02.03 minutes while his team leader well experienced Meemanage came .15 seconds behind. Sameera recorded the same timing despite injuries he sustained when he fell down in the middle of the race.

Jeewan Jayasinghe of Sri Lanka Air Force was adjudged the Men's Best All Rounder and was awarded Air Marshal J Weerakkody Challenge Trophy. He recorded a timing of nine hours and 27.42 minutes in all stages while Buddika Warnakulasuriya won the second place with a timing of 6 points behind Jeewan. Lakshman Wijeratne was placed third for his timing of nine hours and 31.52 seconds. Sri Lanka Air Force A team won the team championship this year while Sri lanka Army A were placed second.

Air Women Nirosha Perera won the Commander of the Air Force Challenge Trophy when she finished the inaugural women's event. Lasanthi Gunathilaka of Sri Lanka Navy won the second place and another Navy woman, Dilrukshi Sumanaweera finished third.

The men's race started at Dambulla for the final stage where cyclists peddled freely to represent a peace cycle tour to Galewela official starting point where they accelerated among the applause of the large gathering.

The race was delayed more than an hour when it came to a sudden halt at Omaragolla . The road had been completely blocked due to a stalled bulldozer carrier which had unexpectedly reversed and stuck across the road at Omaragolla steep hill. After removing the obstacle the tour started again at a new starting point.

Cyclists took the lead changing their positions from time to time and they passed sprint five at Narammala and the last sprint at Mahabage.

The race continued via Wattala and Panchikawatta to T B Jayah Mawatha where the first bunch came forward with a distinct margin to the second bunch. It was Lakshman who peddled with great strength to pass the finish line first.