Lankans in Incheon looking for medals
A total of 80 athletes and 31 officials, which made up a contingent of 111, are gathering to the Games Village in Incheon, South Korea to discover Sri Lanka’s medal prospects at Asia’s biggest sporting event, the 17th Asian Games. The Games officially began amidst a colourful opening ceremony which featured some of the top performers in Asia at 6.00pm Incheon time on Friday.
Sri Lanka, led by Commonwealth Games medal-winning weightlifter Chinthana Geethal Vidanage will be hoping to perform their best vying for medals, but with the Games contested in 36 sports and 439 events, the islanders will not have an easy passage to the podium.
Sri Lanka are looking to make amendments after a major flop at the 20th Commonwealth Games in Glasgow. They returned with a solitary silver medal after fielding 114 athletes. Sri Lanka will be competing under track and field (11), boxing (4), Women’s Twenty20 cricket (1 team of 15), Men’s Twenty20 cricket (1 team of 15), hockey (one team of 16), rugby sevens (one team of 12), sailing (1), beach volleyball (4), weightlifting (1) and wrestling (1).
One of the medal hopefuls is from the Women Twenty20 cricket. Sri Lanka women’s cricket team captain Chamari Atapattu making an official statement prior to their departure in Colombo said that her team’s hope is to win a medal, hopefully gold.
“We are among the top ranked Women’s Twenty20 teams in Asia and the team has players with exposure from top international competitions. Yet we are aware that others would throw at us the much expected challenge. Nevertheless we are aiming the gold medal,” Atapattu stated.
The Sri Lankan lasses will join the fray from the quarter-final stage with Pakistan, Bangladesh and Japan. Hong Kong, South Korea, Thailand, China, Malaysia and Nepal will compete in the first round under two groups.
The Men’s Twenty20 cricket team, led by Sri Lanka national vice captain Lahiru Thirimanne stands as one of the top favourites in their event, which is capable of giving the country an obvious medal. Sri Lanka will enter the competition from the second round with Bangladesh, Afghanistan and Hong Kong. The Group ‘A’ consists of China, Malaysia and host South Korea while Kuwait, Maldives and Nepal will contest from Group ‘B’. The team will reach Incheon on Tuesday.
The captain of the Sri Lankan squad, Vidanage is another medal hope. Despite his failure at the Commonwealth Games in Glasgow, Vidanage still has the potential of being on the top at Asian level. Despite their potential in track and field events Sri Lanka has not shown great promise in preparations. As usual Sri Lanka has banked highly on women’s javelin thrower Nadeeka Lakmali, marathoner Anuradha Indrajith Cooray and the 4x400m relay team, according to an athletic official.
From wrestling Chamara Milinda Perera’s performance at his last international appearance in Glasgow has made him one of the medal prospects for Sri Lanka. The beach volleyball team that includes powerful players namely Asanga Pradeep Kumara, Pubudu Ekanayake, Wasantha Ratnapala and Jude Mahesh Perera have performed consistently in the recent times, raising further medals hopes for the islanders.
The Sri Lanka Sevens rugby team under Fazil Marija, completed at four in both Asian Sevens Series legs held in Hong Kong and Malaysia and with most of the opponents being known contenders, the Tuskers has the potential of pulling off a thriller. Their performance in the last outing in Kuala Lumpur makes fair indications of a medal.
Sri Lanka has taken part in all the editions of Asian Games since its inaugural in 1951 in New Delhi, India.
Besides the 28 Olympic sports the 17th Asian Games will have eight new sports including baseball, Twenty20 cricket, kabaddi, karate, squash and wushu.
Incheon Games, organised by the Olympic Council of Asia (OCA) will feature over 5000 athletes from 45 different countries with 439 events to be held under 36 sports disciplines. The Games will be held over 16 days and will come to an end on October 4.
| Lankan Games official robs Journalists’ passes at opening ceremony
A blind-side move by a Sri Lankan sports official in Incheon, South Korea prevented a group of local journalists from entering the main stadium where the opening ceremony of the 17th Asian Games were held on Friday. The reason for local journalists being prevented from entering the stadium was due to the said Sri Lankan official highjacking seven invitations issued for the scribes. As a result the group of Sri Lankan scribes had to sit out in an open area and witness the opening ceremony on a giant screen and send the reports to their respective media institutions. According to available information the official is said to be an individual connected to the National Olympic Committee (NOC) of Sri Lanka or the Ministry of Sports. The group of journalists had travelled over 100 kilometres from the main media centre to the stadium but were forced to sit out until the end of the programme. An official on duty at the Asian Games in Incheon confirmed that the seven invitations determined for the Sri Lankan journalists had been taken away by this official. This official is said to have forged signatures to obtain the invitations. The official had faked a name of a Senior Sports Editor of a national Sri Lankan newspaper to get one of the invitations by using his name, phone number and the signature. In addition the official had used the name of one of the senior sport journalists attached to a well known Sinhala daily, who was never assigned for the Asian Games coverage. Also the names of several well known electronic media personals had been used to take hold of the invitations. In the list only the name of a senior sport journalist present appeared. This journalist was informed by an email informed from Sri Lanka team manager Conrad Francis to meet him personally and collect his invitation but was kept waiting outside the stadium even after the end of the opening ceremony. By the manner this official used the names of non-attending journalists those who had go through the bad experience had observed that he or she who did it had good knowledge of the local journalist and their pattern of work. The journalists eventually had to plead the officials at gates but were still not given access into the stadium or its media centre. When inquired, an official at the location stated that they issued seven invitations to Sri Lankan journalists considering the country’s population and participation at the Asian Games. |