Mangala fails sans coach

Dinesh WEERAWANSA reporting from England

Sri Lanka’s Mangala Samarakoon failed to better Sri Lanka record as he was eliminated after the qualifying round of the men’s 50m prone event of the Olympic shooting competition at the Royal Artillery Barracks on Friday morning.

Samarakoon scored only 585 points, way behind his personal best of 595, in finishing 47th out of 50 shooters who took part in the event. Former world championship gold medalist and two-time Olympic bronze medalist Martynov Sergei of Belarus had a perfect score of 600 points to equal the world record. Belgium’s Lionel Cox aggregated 599 to finish second after the qualifying round.

Speaking to media after his pet event, the 31-year-old Lanka soldier said he could have done much better had his coach been here with him. “None of us in the Sri Lanka contingent has a single coach. There isn’t a single coach among officials in the Sri Lanka contingent. That is a big disadvantage. I told authorities that I need a coach with me when I fire at Olympics,” Samarakoon said.

He said the Commander of Sri Lanka Army Lt. General Jagath Jayasuriya too tried hard to get his coach accredited for the Games. “But officials did not take an interest.

Coach is a person who could think beyond me and advise me when it matters the most, especially a major event such as the Olympics. They were not interested in sending a coach to guide me. I think officials should think seriously about having coaches on tour,” he said.

Samarakoon paid a glowing tribute to Sri Lanka Army, its Commander and other officials. “If not for Sri Lanka Army I would not have been here. It is due to the support and assistance that I get from SLA and its top officials that I have come this long way,” he said.

Among the keen spectators watching Samarakoon taking his target was former Sri Lanka shooter Lucky Rajasinghe who represented Sri Lanka at the 1992 Barcelona Olympic Games. Yours truly who had reported Rajasinghe’s performance in Spain 20 years back, had an opportunity to speak to the ace shooter here competition at the Royal Artillery Barracks.

Rajasinghe was of the view that Samarakoon is a talented marksman who could easily be groomed. “I could not go and advise him because I am just a spectator here. But I felt he lacked concentration and services of a coach beside him,” said Rajasinghe, now an American residing in the USA for almost a decade. He has specially flown to the British capital to see Samarakoon in action. Lucky and his late brother Daya Rajasingham were household names during their era and are one of the top two shooters ever produced by Sri Lanka.

“Having Lucky (Rajasinghe) Sir is a great encouragement. Unfortunately, I did not get a chance of speaking to him and get finer points of the sport,” Samarakoon said.

Meanwhile, Peter Wilson claimed a gold medal for Great Britain in the men's double trap shooting. The 25-year-old led from start to finish as Wilson, the world record-holder and world number two in the event, was three points ahead going into this afternoon's final after three qualifying rounds in the morning.

In a tense final shoot-out Wilson missed five shots, including a double as he closed in on gold. But his opponents could not take advantage and the Briton eventually finished two clear of Sweden's Hakan Dahlby with a total score of 188 out of 200 shots fired. He smashed the world record in Arizona in March, scoring an incredible 198, and is now Britain's first Shooting medalist since Richard Faulds won gold in the same event in Sydney Olympic Games 12 years ago.

Needing one hit from the final two targets, Wilson got both before falling to his knees in tears as a capacity crowd gave the new Olympic Games champion a standing ovation, He then climbed into the first row of seats to greet his mother and tearful girlfriend to be surrounded by photographers. “'It's awesome, fantastic. I feel great,” he said.

Dahlby took silver while, behind the celebrations, Russian Vasily Mosin won bronze after a shoot-off with Kuwaiti Fehaid Aldeehani.

Athletic action begins

There was a packed stadium as the track and field competition began at the Olympic Stadium this morning. Wisil Toea of Papua New Guinea registered the fastest time of 11.60 seconds out of 32 sprinters who took part in women’s 100m qualifying round. Five others ran their heats under 12 seconds.

Great Britain's Jessica Ennis made a sensational start in her bid for heptathlon glory before a massive crowd. The first event, the 100m hurdles, got under way shortly after 10am, with 26-year-old Ennis making her Olympic debut in the fifth and final heat. Ennis who missed the Beijing 2008 Games after suffering a career-threatening foot injury, considers the hurdles her strongest event and is also entered for the individual event in London.

In basketball, Croatia got off the mark at the fourth attempt to stay alive in the London 2012 women's tournament with a 56-75 win over Angola. In a meeting of the two remaining winless teams in Group A, Croatia made light work of the African champions, breaking clear late in the first quarter and opening up a double-digit lead before half-time.

LONDON, Friday.