Sri Lankan contingent ready for big bash

Dinesh WEERAWANSA reporting from England

Swimmers Heshan Unamboowe, Reshika Udugampola, shuttlers Niluka Karunaratne, Thilini Jayasinghe and rifle shooter Mangala Samarakoon will be seen in action at the XXXth Olympic Games here from Saturday.

The competition proper of men's and women's singles first round matches of the Olympic badminton tournament is scheduled to begin on Saturday, along with the swimming and shooting competitions of the Games.

However, Sri Lanka's champion marathon runner Anuradha Indrajith Cooray and US-based Lankan hurdler Sonali Christine Merril will be seen in action later next week as the athletic competition will begin only on August 3. Asian Championship bronze medallist Merril will compete in the first round of women's 400m hurdles on August 5.

Sri Lanka's leading long distance runner Cooray in the most senior member of the Sri Lanka contingent, having competed at the Athens 2004 Olympic Games in Greece. Besides Cooray, the only other Lankan competitor in the contingent for London Games with previous Olympic experience is shuttler Thilini Jayasinghe who in the 2008 Beijing Olympics became the first ever women shutter ever to represent Sri Lanka in the 116-year-old history of Olympic Games.

Cooray, who had an impressive performance at this year's London Marathon to qualify for the 2012 Olympics, will be seen in action on the final day of the London Games - August 12.

Sri Lanka contingent for the 2012 Olympic Games arrived in London last on Tuesday afternoon. The team included swimmers Unamboowe, Udugampola, shooter Samarakoon and Jayasinghe.

Sri Lanka's undisputed men's singles champion and the overall captain for the London Games, Niluka Karunaratne will arrive from Warsaw after completing the final leg of his training and competition stint in Poland. Hurdler Merril is due to arrive in London later today from the US where she is residing with her family. Cooray too will be joining the team in London.

However, winning a medal at London Games is an impossible task for Sri Lanka which has won two Olympic medals before - one each in every 52 years. Since the first Olympics in 1896, Sri Lanka took 52 years to win a medal at London 1948 Games when Duncan White bagged a silver in men's 400m hurdles. Since then, it took another 52 years for Sri Lanka to win a medal until Susanthika Jayasinghe bagged a medal in women's 200m.

The London Games will see the tightest ever security blanket ever witnessed in the 12-decade-old history of Olympic Games. The military presence at London's Olympic Park is hard to miss and is but one aspect of the super security, readiness concerns and political tensions that are dominating the run-up to this event. It is hard to refrain from thinking that London at present is a city under siege.

Soldiers are now operating the X-ray scanners and metal detectors at the International Media Centre and men and women in fatigues are everywhere around the Games site. Apart from the 5000-volt 17km-long electrified fence surrounding the Olympic Park, there is an ever-growing networks of closed-circuit TV cameras that constantly watch over Britain's capital. They also plan to put as many as six surface-to-air missile batteries atop and downtown buildings.

The military has set up camp in an abandoned shopping centre in East London, near the Olympic park, installing beds and showers for some of the additional 3,500 troops, similar to the strength of British troops in Afghanistan. The military has been quickly called into service to make sure there will not be any terrorist threats whatsoever.

As Friday's mega opening ceremony is fast-approaching, the British capital scrambles to complete finishing touches for the Games. Workers build a section of a sign to welcome visitors to the Olympic Park in Stratford.

An electrified security fence surrounds the Olympic Village at the Olympic Park.

At the main venues, workers are still scurrying to put the finishing touches on sites that will soon host visitors from around the world. London will accommodate nearly 15,000 competitors and 21,000 media personalities while coordinating an army of 6,000 staff and 70,000 Games volunteers. London's Heathrow Airport has been overcrowded with guests arriving for the Games. Most airline passengers who intend to be on transit in London have been rerouted as the Heathrow Airport staff work round the clock to serve the unprecedented volume of passengers.

The honour of carrying the Union flag will go to Sir Chris Hoyis. British Olympic Association (BOA) announced Hoyis will be the flag bearer for the hosts when the London 2012 Games open on Friday. The thirty-six-year-old who has won four gold medals, is the hosts most successful Olympic male cyclist of all time.

He will mark his fourth Olympics by leading the British team into the Olympic Stadium.

He is the first cyclist to have been nominated to carry the Union Flag at an Opening Ceremony. He was also the flag bearer at the Closing Ceremony at the 2008 Olympics in Beijing where he won three gold medals. London, Tuesday