Lankan athletes fail to qualify

Chinthana Wasala reporting from New Delhi

The Sri Lankan mens 4 X 400 meters relay team, which led for a controversy even before the start of the event, was placed fifth in the first heat yesterday at the Jawaharlal Nehru Stadium and failed to get through to the next round.

Prasanna Amarasekera had a good start at lane number eight, but the others failed to impress. Sri Lanka finished with a time of 3 minutes 8.77 seconds.

Chaminda Wijekoon clocked his personal best of 3 minutes 40.78 seconds, bettering his previous best of 3 minutes 41.97 seconds and finished second in the first heat of men’s 1500 meters event last evening and qualified for today’s final.

Although at the end of the event he suffered from a leg injury and his participation in the final is yet to be confirmed.

Ruggerites fail to impress

The Sri Lankan rugby sevens team who took the field yesterday, lost all three matches they played. In the morning, they were helpless against the tough opposition of English ruggerites losing 59-7.

At the half time the scores were 33-0. Anuradha Sooriyabandara scored a try early in the second half, conversion was made by Radhika Hettiarachchi.

In the second match they lost to Australia 42-5 with Anuradha Sooriyabandara once again scoring a try and later lost to Uganda 35-5.

Badminton

The Sri Lanka badminton team lost all three of their encounters yesterday at the Siri Fort Sports Complex. Dinuka Karunarathne lost to Singapore’s Yong Zhao Ashton Chen 21/19, 21/8 while his brother Niluka lost to England’s Rajiv Ouseph 21/5, 18/21, 21/15.

Thilini Jayasinghe and Subodha Kumari lost to the pair from Isle of Mans 21/7, 21/7.

The gold medallist in the women’s 100 metres event, Nigeria’s Osayemi Oludamola has tested positive for a banned stimulant.