| Sports
|
||||
|
Dazzling
Lankans in Busan Golfer Anura Rohana slowly but surely was improving in different stages of the golf tournament and was one of the contenders for the gold medal. In fact he was disappointed having started the final round on equal terms with the ultimate winner Shiv Kapur of India. His performance cannot be taken as a flash in the pan as he has been playing in golf circuits around the globe. The achievement puts him among the elite in the local golf scene. Sprint queen Susanthika Jayasinghe with her superlative performance in the 100 metres dash at the 14th Asian Games in Busan, Korea kept her local supporters in high hopes with a sure chance of snatching her second goal in the 200m which was her pet event but that was not to be. In an unfortunate and unexpected manner she had to bow out of this event due to a hamstring injury which would put her out of action for at least another six weeks. Nevertheless Susanthika won the 100m gold medal in style winning the event in a record breaking time of 11.15 secs. eclipsing the existing record of 11.27 secs. Earlier this year she won a double at the 14th Asian Athletics Championships held at the Sugathadasa Stadium. But she missed the bronze medal in the 100m at the Commonwealth Games held in Manchester. Last month she won the 100m bronze at the World Cup held in Madrid. She left the shores confident of bringing in two golds but unfortunately she was not able to fulfill her ambitions due to a hamstring injury which sources say will keep her out of action for six weeks. She ran in the semi finals in the 200m event and was leading till almost the end but slackened her speed due to cramps. With that all hopes of winning another gold medal faded. Emerging star Rohan Pradeep Kumara who won the bronze medal in the 400m was participating at the Asian Games for the first time and has the ability of becoming a future star if he is well guided. He won the semi final but had admitted that he had little hopes of winning a medal. At the Asian Athletics Championship held at the Sugathadasa Stadium he was only able to finish fourth behind Sugath Tilekeratne but was a member of the winning quartet that won the 4 x 400 gold medal at the same meet. He is confident that Sri Lanka could get another medal in the same event in Busan. Another athlete who does her talking while running is the other gold medal winner Damayanthi Darsha who blazed through to win the 400m in a Games record time of 51.13 secs. Like Susanthika this is Darsha's pet event. In fact she won gold medals in both the 200m and 400m at the last Asian Games held in Bangkok four years ago. This time she has the honour of repeating her win plus breaking the record. Darsha had wanted to participate in the 200m too but they had scheduled both the finals on the same day which was too much for her hence she decided for her pet event. Darsha was not able to take part at the Asian championship held in Colombo due to injury but had been training hard for the Busan Games. With the Busan Asian Games schedule to come to an end tomorrow lets hope that our athletes would bring more hon our andprestige to our motherland with a few more medals. Young
swimmers excel in China Kalyan Veera, Chathuri Abeykoon and Mihiri Kandanaarachchi obtained Diplomas while also entering the finals in several events along with Uma Kavya Dharmadasa. Kalyan Veera (14) was placed 6th in the 100 metre Breast Stroke setting a Sri Lankan record with a timing of 1:13. He was also placed 6th in the 50 metres Breast Stroke and 7th in the 50 metres Free Style and entered the Finals of the 200 metres Breast Stroke. He is a student of Asian International School. Mihiri Kandanaarachchi (13) came 6th in the under 16 category of the 200 metres Breast Stroke. She was a Finalist in the 50 metres Breast Stroke - setting a record for best performance in the Under 16 age group and qualified for the finals in the 400 metres Individual Medley. A student of Mahamaya College Mihiri has been swimming since the age of seven. "It is after 13 years that Mahamaya has won a diploma at this championships," she said. Chathuri Abeykoon (13) emerged sixth at the finals of the 50 metres Free Style and received a Diploma. She set a Sri Lankan Age Group record. She also participated in the 50 metres Butterfly, 50 Backstroke, 100 Butterfly, 100 Backstroke. Chathuri who started swimming at the age of seven is a student of Ladies College. The youngest to participate in the Sri Lankan contingent Uma Kavya Dharmadasa (13) was a finalist in the 400 metres Individual Medley, coming in seventh with a record timing of 6 minutes 01.60 seconds, breaking a record in the under 16 age group in Sri Lanka. She also participated in the 400 metres Free Style, 800 metres Free Style, 200 metres Back Stroke and 200 metres Individual Medley. Uma is a student of Musaeus College.Seven swimmers and one diver took part from Sri Lanka.
Dropped like
a hot brick Alls not that
well You scratch
my back... |
||||
Copyright © 2001 Wijeya Newspapers
Ltd. All rights reserved. |
