‘SILVER’ for Sussie

Susanthika Jayasinghe recovered from a horrible start to clinch the silver medal of the 100 metres sprint of the 15th Asian Games at the Khalifa stadium here in Doha, Qatar last night.

“I am always weak at my start. I know it. You know it. Everyone knows it. But unfortunately that is how it is. That is how God has wanted it to be. But it is no excuse,” Jayasinghe said after her victory.

Out of all competitors, Jayasinghe had the worst start recording a below-par reaction time of 0.275 while the gold medalist Guzel Khubbieva of Uzbekistan had an excellent reaction time of only 0.132.

Rugaya Al Ghasara of Bahrain who was in lane 3 had a false start and it put all the other competitors under pressure. But there was one other factor which affected Jayasinghe more than the others - the Sri Lankan supporters. There were thousands of noisy Sri Lankan supporters waving flags and it had been the deciding factor between gold and a silver, according to Jayasinghe.

“Ï have never before been under pressure like this at the start. There were a lot of Sri Lankans and they were making a huge noise. It was a new experience. Even at Olympics I never had a support like this. When I saw them, There was an extra urge in me to do well and that obviously put me under a lot of undue pressure.” Jayasinghe said.

She also blamed the cold weather. “It is really cold. I want get dressed as quickly as possible” she told media.

Jayasinghe who was the reigning Asian Games champion coming into the event, having won it at the Busan Games in 2002, was however not that sad to give away her crown. “Considering the circumstances, I am delighted with what I got. I was training really hard for this and was in perfect shape to do an 11.1 or 11.2. But as you know I had fever and everything went wrong. Many people said that I would not run. But here I am, doing my best for the country and I am glad that I have a silver medal to show for it” she said.

However Jayasinghe promised that she would win the gold in her pet event, the 200 metres sprint. “As you know my start is always poor. But in the 200, there is always time to correct a poor start and make up for lost ground. I am definitely going for gold” she predicted.

Khubbieva who was on lane 4 finished in 11.34, Jayasinghe clocked 11.40 while 24 year old Rugaya Al Ghasara from Bahrain who was keeping up with Muslim tradition of wearing a hijab and clothing covering the entire body, produced an amazing run to clinch the bronze at 11.59.

Earlier, Sri Lanka’s other major medal hope in the men’s high jump Manjula Kumara flopped finishing 7th only clearing 2.19 metres, even far below his personal best and later blamed the weather and the track for his failure.

“There is no strength in the body. I don’t know the reason, but it was really difficult. Probabaly the climate was not ideal. Even the track was hard and it was very difficult to take off when you run fast” Kumara described.

In the morning, unheralded school girl from Nikaweratiya Chandrika Subhashini made a surprise entry into the finals of the women’s 400 metres while the more favoured Menaka Wickremasinghe was knocked out of contention.

Sri Lanka’s golfers were virtually out of medal contention after two disastrous rounds by yesterday.

Doing best for the country were Mithun Perera and Kandasamy Prabagaran who were lying joint 30th after the two rounds with a 4 over par score of 148. Prabagaran had two rounds of 75 and 73 while Perera had scores of 73 and 75. Tissa Chandradasa was joint 42nd with a 8 over par score of 152 while Amrith de Zoysa was in joint 51st place with a score 156. In the team event Sri Lankans were lying in 10th out of 11 teams with 447 points.

Rajeev Rajapakse who played his first round match in the men’s singles tennis tournament was thrashed mercilessly 0-6, 0-6 by Cecil Mamiit of Philippines also last morning.

Adding to the long list of Sri Lanka’s first round exits were synchronized swimmers and archery team.

Five teams finished above 40points, while sixth placed Macau scored 37.500 points, almost twice as the seventh and last placed Sri Lankans who supplied the joke for the enjoyment of the crowd.

Archery also supplied plenty of embarrassment to Sri Lanka with three Sri Lankan competitors Yasodhara Silva, Sajeevi Silva and Dilhara Salgado in Women’s individual qualification round finishing 53, 54 and 55 out of 60 competitors. In the men’s event, the Sri Lankan competitor Manjula Kodikara finished 43rd out of 59 competitors.

Today, Susanthika Jayasinghe will take part in the first round heats of her favourite event 200 metres at 11.50 am Sri Lanka time while the two 400 metre finals, women’s featuring Chandrika Subhashini and the men’s featuring Prasanna Amaraskeara would be held at 6.55 p.m and 7.15 p.m. Sri Lanka time.

In the women’s putt shot, Nadeeka Muthunayake finished seventh out of eight registering a maximum throw of 13.94 metres.