• A sad day for Lanka
• Sports briefs
• Murali-Hair showdown
• John Keells in rugby sevens quarters
• De La Salle cagers shine
• Tamil Nadu-Lanka cue series 
• Amrith de Soysa wins main classic 

A sad day for Lanka

The Americans won 14 golds 8 silver and 11 bronze medals aggregating 33 medals with hosts Australia having to be satisfied with 5 golds, 9 silvers and 4 bronze, Netherlands 5 golds and Italy 3 concluding the battle in the pool. 

In the two final events of the day America won both the mens' and womens' medlay relays in world record timings thus being instrumental in the shattering of 15 world records and 38 Olympic records. 

While Sri Lankas Susanthika Jayasinghe failed to qualify for the womens' 100 metres which the gold being won by Marion Jones clocking 10.75 seconds. Maurice Greene won the mens 100 metres gold for USA in 9.88 seconds with Ato Bolden taking the silver in 9.99 seconds. Damayanthi Darsha too failed to reach the 400 metres semi finals finishing in 6th place in her heat. Cathy Freeman recording the fastest timing in qualifying to the semi finals Sugath Tillekaratne failed by a whisker to qualify to the mens' 400 metres with Michael Johnson winning the round 2 quarter with the fastest timing of 45 seconds and looks likely to break the world record in the finals fixed for Monday.The Sunday Times learns that there is much grumbling in the Sri Lankacamp at the village as to the inclusion of Susanthika Jayasinghe in the 4 X 100 Metres relay team since she was the only one to qualify for this blue riband event,while the others failed to do so. 

Rwani Abeymanne finished in the last position in the 25 metres sports pistol event aggregating a low 553 points with the winner aggregation 6903 events. Sailor Lalil Jirasinghe too failed in his effort in the FINN class.In the battle of the 1500 metres free style Grant Hachett beat Keirin Perkins to the gold, Inje de Bruijn of Netherlands was the only swimmer to excell winning three golds and a silver in the water polo womens' final Australia won the gold over USA snatching victory from the jaws of defeat by 4 goals to 3 and in hockey Australia beat Argentina by 2 goals to 1. 

Sports briefs

Nationalised Services TT

Play on will commence at 8.30 A.M on each day. The venue will be the Sri Lanka Rupavahini Gymnasium at Colombo 7.This will be the first time that the National Savings Bank are sponsoring this tournament. Nearly 200 paricipants from 13 institutions are expected to take part. Last year, Ana Suraweera of Sri Lanka Rupavahini Corporation won the women's open singles and D. Gunatileka the men's open singles.

The events to be worked off are: Men's singles and doubles, Women's singles and doubles, Mixed doubles, Men's novices, Women's novices, Men's veteran's and Women's veterans. (BM) 

WP TT

One hundred and twenty five teams, comprising both men and women, have been divided into 8 Divisions for the contest. 

All ranked players in the Western Province have entered the competition,

Results: 'A' Division - Royal 'A' beat Playground 'A' 3/2; Playground 'B' beat Playground 'C' 3/0; Three Stars 'A' beat Royal 'A' 3/2; Playground 'A' beat Playground 'B' 3/2.

'B' Division - Royal 'B' beat Playground 'D' 3/0; Bandaranaike TTC. Club beat Playground 'D' 3/1; Playground 'E' beat Bandaranaike TTC Club 3/2.

'C' Division - Hayley's beat Playground 'F' 3/1; Hayley's beat Playground 'G' 3/0; Royal 'D' beat Bandaranaike TTC 3/0.

'D' Division: St. John's SC beat Playground 3/0; St. John's SC beat Royal 'E' 3/0; St. John's SC beat St. Peter's College 3/2; Playground beat S.P.C. 'A' 3/0; Royal 'F' beat St. John's SC 3/0; Royal 'F' beat Playground 3/1; N.S.B. beat Playgroung 'H' 3/0. (BM)

Mahesha in final

In the Boy's Under 12 final N. Nishendran beat F. Emmanuel. 

Results: Junior Nationals -Girl's Under 14 semi final: Mehesha Seneviratne beat J. Paramananthan 6/0, 6/0..Boy's Under 16 semi final: H. Godamanne beat S. Wickramadinghe 6/0, 6/5. Boy's Under 12 final: N.S. Nishendran beat F. Emmanuel 6/2, 4/6, 6/4.

Senior Nationals -Women's Singles:Suwini Fernando beat U. Dias 6/4, 6/2. V. Premaratane beat S. Perera 6/2, 6/1. Men's Singles:

I. Majeed beat A. Suraweera 6/1, 6/1; R. Razik beat C. Chaturanga 6/4, 6/1. (BM)

Saunders win 6-0 

Isipatana win

Under 16 - Isipatana beat D.S.Senanayake, 4-0, Under 18 - Isipatana vs D.S.Senanayake 3-2 

Murali-Hair showdown

By Marlon Fernandopulle

Sri Lanka will meet Pakistan in a quarter final clash if they win their first round encounter against West Indies.Umpire Darrell Hair has been assigned to stand in the Pakistan game. 

Strangely the Board of Control for Cricket in Sri Lanka(BCCSL) was not aware of Darrell Hair's appointment to officiate in this game.When the Sunday Times contacted the Chief Executive officer of the BCCSL Dhammika Ranatunge yesterday the CEO said he was not aware of Darrell Hair's appointment for the Lankan game. Buknor,Venkat,Peter Willey,Shepherd and David Orchard are the other Umires officiating in the tournament.

Umpire Hair who created an uproar in the Boxing day Test in Melbourne in 1995 when he called the off spinner for throwing has never officiated in a Sri Lankan Test or One day International since that sensational test match.In his Autobiography the Decision Maker published later, Hair justifies no-balling Muralitharan. The Umpire has also told a Sri Lankan Cricket official a few years ago that he will not hesitate to call Muralitharan again if he feels he should call him. 

Thus if the BCCSL does not act fast and ensure that Darrell Hair is out of all Sri Lankan games there is a strong possibility of a repeat of the Boxing day incidents in 1995.

Only last week Darrel Hair called Zimbabwean Grant Flower for throwing in the first test against New Zealand. However subsequently the Zimbabwea Cricket Unions illegal delivery panel found no problem with Flower's deliveries and gave him the green light to continue bowling.Currently Flower is playing the second test which is being officiated by David Shepherd(England) and Ian Robinson (Zimbabwe).

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