| Sports |
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| Kandy
down Air Force The most loyal player for Kandy Sports Club, who is playing since 1990 Indrajith Bandaranayake, had a superb game. He planted three tries and ran around the Air Force defence. Air Force wasted much of the important time by kicking at the goal aimlessly. Their forwards played well in patches, but most of the time they went for the man instead of the ball. Radika Hettiarachchi, Pradeep Basnayake, Nalaka Weerakkody and Dunstan de Silva did not take the field because of injuries. Amjad Bux was replaced by Malith Silva and Kapila Silva was replaced by former Trinity 'Lion' Kavinda Jayasena. The line outs were shared equally while Kandy SC three-quarters tackled their opponents well. Indrajith Bandaranayake, Kapila Silva and Nilufer Ibrahim played their hearts out. But the defence of Kandy SC's full back Pushpakumara was in qwuestion as he was put under severe pressure by Air Force full back and place kicker Ruwan Anthony who had a superb game. Kandy SC's tries were scored by Indrajith Bandaranayake (3), Liyanage, Pushpakumara, Shaun, Kavinda Jayasena scored. Their Samoan, who looks threatning to most of the top sides scored two tries. Amjad Bux put over a penalty and five of the try conversions. For Air Force the try was scored by Ruwan Chandrasekera and Ruwan Anthony put overthree penalties and the try conversion. This is the second time that Air Force have conceded over half a century. Earlier in the season they lost to the Soldiers 53-15. Mahinda Jayawardena controlled the game. Army
SC rout Kurunegala Army who led 86-0 at the breather went on to amass another 51 points in the second session to win the game by 137-5. Of the 25 tries that were scored six of these were converted. The soldiers have now scored 417 points from the five matches that they have played. Something should be done to stop this massacre of innocents or else outstation teams like Kurunegala RFC will follow Galle RFC who have pulled out ofthetournanment. The Sports Ministry have promised to get Kurunegala two foreign players but up to date no news of these players. Scoreslike this are a sure sounding of the death knell to outstation teams. The match was controlled by Anil Jayasinghe.-MSA Two
major sponsors for Asian Athletics Grand Prix Over 175 athletes which will be the cream of athletes in asian regioin will participate in all the four legs. The third leg is scheduled to be held in Bangkok, Thailand while the fourth leg is scheduled to be held in Manila, Philipinnes. The host nations will have the benefit of including two more athletes for each event that is being scheduled to take place. Jayaweera briefing the press said that Sri Lankan athletes are making great strides and the AASL have drawn up several programmes to scout for up and coming athletes in the remote areas around the island. The minister of sports has set aside Rs. 3.8 million for the training of over 500 athletes in 19 districts. The programme is scheduled to begin from June 1 and it will be a two year programme scheduled to end in the year 2005. He further said, now that the IAAF is giving us many oportunities to conduct international meets and we should be prepared with new talent to replace athletes like Susanthika Jayasinghe, Damayanthie Darsha, Sugath Tilekeratne and other top class athletes who will have to someday retire. The IAAF has confidence in the AASL after having conducting a successful14th Asian Athletics Championship which was held last year at the Sugathadasa Stadium. The Minister of Sports Johnston Fernando is a tower of strength initiating many plans to improve the standard of athletics in our county. Jayaweera said that they are grateful to the sponsors Dankotuwa Porcelain and SriLankan Airlines along with Hotel Lanka Oberoi, the host hotel for coming forward. Kithsiri Wijesundara, CEO of Dankotuwa Porcelain speaking on the occasion said that we were one of the gold sponsors at the 14th Asian Athletics Championships held last year and it is a privilege to be involved in another international event that is being held in our country. Chandana Silva, Head of Corporate Sri Lankan Airlines said that as the national carrier we are right behind to give all the support as usual. We sponsor other sports too but this the first time we are being involved with athletics and we will give off our best to make this event successful. Minister of Sports Johnston Fernando was of the view that any sports cannot be expanded or improved without the support of the sponsors. He hoped that like Dankotuwa Porcelain Ltd and Sri Lankan Airlines many more sponsors would come forward in making this event a success. Speaking of the financial grant given to the AASL the minister stressed that, for the start he would be satisfied if we could one more athlete like Susanthika and think of many more later. He also mentioned that no one will be rewarded immediately after winning an international event but a special ceremony will be held every year to reward whoever the winners are. All the athletes participating in the four legs will leave in the same flight to the respective countries that the events are held. The participants for the Sri Lanka leg are scheduled to arrive in the country at 11.30 a.m. on Friday (May 30). The event at Sugathadasa Stadium is scheduled to be held from 5.00 p.m. to 8.00. p.m. on June 1. Ratheeshan
wins a gold in decathlon champion event The Decathlon and Heptathlon championship event was organized by the Athletic Association of Sri Lanka at the Sugathadasa Stadium in Colombo last week. Ratheeshan represented the Trincomalee district athletic association. Ratheeshan first entered the national athletic championship in 2002 at the age of nineteen. He came fourth behind champion G.H.R.Priyantha of Sri Lanka Air Force. In the same year he participated in the 10th Asian Junior Athletic Championship in Bangkok and finished ninth behind Junior Asian Champion Hong Qingyang of China. |
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