Susanthika Jayasinghe and Chintaka de Soysa earned the tag as the 'fastest woman and man' when they won the 100 metres dash, at the blue ribband events for the day at the 23rd National Sports Festival concluded at the Sports Ministry Grounds and at the Race Course last evening.
Jayasinghe, who only recently bagged a silver in the 200 metres event at the World Championships in Athens failed to run in the 200 metres. She bagged the gold medal in the 100 metres dash in 11.7 seconds with Sriyani Kulawansa Fonseka taking silver in 11.1 secs and Pradeep Herath of the Central Province bagging the bronze medal in 12.5 secs.
De Soysa of Southern Province won the gold medal in 10.7 seconds in the 100 metres while C.P.Ramanayake and P.S.R.Kumara of Uva Province won the silver and bronze medals respectively with timings of 11 secs dead.
Ruwan Pradeep Perera who set up a new record in the pole vault was picked as the most outstanding athlete at the National Sports Festival.
Western Province with a haul of 62 golds, 37 silver and 36 bronze medals won the overall championship with Central Province as the runners up with 22 golds, 28 silvers and 33 bronze medals. North Western Province were third with 20 golds, 19 siilvers and18 bronze medals.
President Chandrika Bandaranaike Kumaratunga was the chief guest and gave away the awards. Two new Sri Lankan records were set on the second day of the Sports Festival on Friday. The two records were in the men's pole vault and women's discus throw events.
Ruwan Pradeep Perera of the Western Province went over the bar at a height of 4.51 metres. This height cleared by Perera bettered the existing National Sports Festival record of 4.13 metres held by A. P. Somaratne. The second record was by Padma Nandani Wijeyesundera with a distance of 43.34 metres improving on her own mark of 42.20 metres.
The other to excel in setting a record was Jayamani Illeperuma of the Western Province, running in her new event the women's 800 metres in a timing of 2 minutes, 13 seconds while the Sri Lanka record stood at 2 minutes 09.93 seconds. S. Ratnakumara of the North Western Province won the gold medal in the mens 800 metres with a time of 1 minute 52.2 seconds while the national mark was held by Ranjith Subasinghe of 1 minute 48.56 seconds.
Hiranjan Ratnayake of Uva set a new games record in the 400 metres hurdles with a timing of 52.8 seconds thus improving on the timing by Padmakumara Amarasekera by just point of second - 52.9 seconds. Sri Lanka's champion quarter miler, Sugath Tillekaratne won the 200 metres gold medal with a time of 21.7 seconds and looks set to bag the double by winning the gold in the 400 metres.
T. F. Aleileema of the Western Province won the men's putt shot event with a distance of 15.55 metres while P. K. Aluvihare of the Central Province won the gold medal in the men's javelin throw with a distance of 65.66 metres. The women's 10,000 metres gold medal was won by M. Irene of the Sabraragamuwa Province in a time of 37 minutes 22.9 seconds while the men's gold medal was won by Saman Weerakkody in a time of 30 minutes, 35 seconds with Sunil Jayaweera of Uva taking the silver medal in a time of 30 minutes 36 seconds and R.M.R. Ratnayake winning the bronze medal in 30 minutes 56.4 seconds. The men's 100 metres relay was won by the Southern Province quartet with Chintika de Soysa doing the anchor lap, while North Western Province won the women's 4 x100 metres relay gold medal with Sabaragamua Province the silver medal with Susanthika Jayasinghe doing the anchor lap.
Last year's champions Western Province was way ahead in the overall points table and looked certain of winning the championship this year too.
Western Province who won the football title won the Netball crown too defeating Central Province by 52 goals to 24 with Sandya Jayasuriya being picked as the best player. Southern Province won the gold medal in Kabbadi defeating Sabaragamwa in the final.
Sriyani Kulawansa won the gold medal in her pet event the women's 100 metres hurdles in a time of 13.6 seconds thus setting a new games record.
M. P. Senatillake of the Southern Province won the gold medal in the men's long jump with a distance of 7.30 metres.
Except for New South Wales Country of Australia, the foreign teams taking part in the Singer Cup International Rugby Tournament at Longden Place to mark CR&FC's 75th year celebrations are putrid.
Let's hope the fourth match of the contest between Northcore Birken Head of New Zealand and Dubai Exiles today at the same venue will not follow the same trend.
On the second day of the contest the Dubai Exiles were thrashed 53-3 by Kandy and what's more, the Exiles could not even field XV players and they had to take in local players to make up their ranks. Just to make sure that this is no passing fancy the CR&FC scored a runaway 104 ( 12 goals and five tries) to 12( one goal and one try) win over a hapless De A Hong Kong in the third match of the tournament.
In a game which looked like a massacre of the innocents CR & FC turned in a display of fast open rugby with the outsides doing their mite and the visiting Hong Kong side had no answer.
The De A Hong Kong side were all at sea in the first half when they gave 0-85 lead . But they played a far more better game in the second half when three former Anandians - Aroshana Fernando, Dulipa Jayawardana and Surindra Jayaweera - replaced some of the players in visiting team to induce much life into the Hong Kong side. They only gave away 19 points in the second half..
The CR tries in the first half were scored by Taupa Sukanivalu (5), Rousite Saikuru (1), Roshan Cinthaka (1), Anselm De Zilwa (1), Krishan Musafar (1), Asanga Rodrigo (3) and Paul Bennett (1).Sukanivalu converted ten of the 13 tries scored in the first half to give the Red Shirts an unbeatable 85-0 lead at lemons.
DeA played far more better rugby on resumption. They opened scoring in the seventh mintue through Mayhew who barged through after a forwards rush to score mid left. The conversion was missed by Lang to reduce the lead to 85-5. CR hit back through Ajantha Cooray who scored a try. The conversion was put over by Bandara to give them a 92-5 lead in the 11th minute of the secondhalf. Three minutes later Naufer Rahim scored a try and the conversion was missed by Bandara to give a 97-5 lead to CR.
Anura Dhammika had the honour of helping CR to pass the 100 point mark when he scored a try and the conversion was put over by Thushara Bandara to give CR 104-5 lead in the 29th minute
Just few mintues before the long whistle the Hong Kong side scored a try through former Anandian, Aroshana Fernando who had an outstanding game as fly half. The try was converted by Lang to reduce the lead to 104-12. Refree-Michael Tutty of Australia
A 171 run opening stand between openers Dominic Thornley(85) and Lee Carseldine(84) helped the Australian Academy to force a draw against the Sri Lanka Board President's XI in the first four day game which concluded at the P. Sara Stadium yesterday.
Trailing by 265 runs on the first innings the visitors fought back through their opening pair first and later skipper Jeff Vaughan(41) and Simpn Dart (35) to be 290 for 8 before rain halted play with 12 overs to spare.
After the Australians dominated the afternoon session the Lankans broke through in the final session to have the visitors in trouble. The Australia Academy slumped to be 225 for 5 from a commanding 216 for one as the Lankans took firm control of the game.
Skipper Russell Arnold was the man responsible for the visiting team's debacle when he scalped three wickets in one over and helped his side to be within victory.
However the visitors sixth wicket pair of Simon Dart (35) and Darren Reeves (14) put on 51 runs to frustrate the Lankans in their bid to force a win.
The second four day game between the two sides begins at the SSC tomorrow.
Seylan Bank 'A' will clash with Seylan Bank 'B' in the Inter- Bank cricket sixes will be played today at the BRC and Colts ground.
The tournament is organised by BRC and sponsored by Sampath Bank Master Card International and will be played for the Master Card Trophy. The final will be at BRC grounds,.
The draw: Mashreq vs Habib A.G.Zurich, Bank of Ceylon 'A' vs Habib Bank Ltd, Bank of Ceylon 'B' vs HNB 'B', Muslim Commercial Bank vs Hong Kong Bank, Pan Asia vs Commercial Bank 'B', Sampath Bank 'B' vs State Mortgage Bank, Union Bank B vs Hatton National Bank A, Standard Chartered vs Commercial 'A', ANZ Grindlay's vs NSB, Overseas Trust Bank vs Habib A.G.Zurich 'B'; Sampath 'A' vs Union Bank 'A', Seylan Bank 'A' vs Seylan Bank 'B'.
KATHMANDU SEPT 13 (AFP) -India won the second South Asian Fedration Football Tournament at Kathmandu when they trounced Maldives by five goals to one, yesterday.
The Indians were in dazzling form throughout outplaying their opponents in all departments and effectively sealing up the win with three goals in the first 20 minutes.
Earlier Pakistan beat Sri Lanka 1-0 to take third place thanks to an own goal by Sri Lankan J. Haseemdeen.
Nine International Schools will take part in the International schools under 17 limited overs cricket tournament to be played at the Shalika grounds Narahenpita. The nine schools grouped in two are:
Group A - Alethea International School, World Education School, Colombo International School, Leighton Park, Asian International.
Group B - Stafford International, British School, Wycherley International School, Belvoir College. The semi finals will be played on October 11 and 12.
Wycherley win
Wycherley International School beat the British School by 182 runs in their Inter-International Schools Under 17 limited overs cricket tournament match at the Shalika Grounds yesterday.
Batting first Wycherley International School scored 260 for 7 in their 40 overs with Rahman top scoring with 83. In reply the British School were out for 78.
Wycherley Itl. - 260 for 7 in 40 overs ( Rahman 83, Imran Alu 43, Channa Perera 26, Rizley 20, Shifaz 27; R.Jayasinghe 2 for 39)
British School - 78 in 40 overs (Rajahda 27, Damith 10; Rukman 4 for 10, Fawaz 2 for 11).
Australian Academy 1st innings-236 allout
Sri Lanka Board President's Eleven 1st innings-501 for 9 dec.
Australian Cricket Academy 2nd innings (60 for no loss overnight)
D. Thornley c.A. Gunawardene
b E. Upashantha 85
Lee Carseldine c R. Arnold
b M. Jayawardene 84
Jeff Vaughan c S. Kalawitigoda
b R. Arnold 41
S Dart c S. Ranatunge b R. Perera 35
M Higgs c M J ayawardene b R Arnold 0
D. Hussey c S. Kalawitigoda b R. Arnold 1
D Reeves b R Arnold 14
S. Tubb not out 7
J. Heath run out 0
M Anderson not out 0
Extras (b-8,lb-1,nb-13) 22
Total: (for 8 wkts) 290
Fall:1-171, 2-216, 3-223, 4-225, 5-225, 6-276, 7-280, 8-290
Bowling: D Liyanage 2.1-0-9-0; R. Perera 16-1-59-1; E. Upashantha 13.5-0-49-1; B Perera 17-1-65-1; R Arnold 23-5-61-4; M. J ayawardene 21-9-38-1.
Schoolgirl Shanon Kern, heads the table at the completion of the 10th round of Hilton Grand Prix Ladies Golf Championships with 993 points worked off at the Royal Colombo Golf Club.
Lying second is Yvonne Abhayaratne with 836 points followed by I. O. Khim - 755, Suwaneetha Selvaratnam - 740, Niloo Jayatilleka - 733, Kumari Herath - 681, Anouk Chamugam - 646, C.M. Boo - 634, Pravinna Dunuwille - 592, Fran de Mel - 563.
Meanwhile, Yvonne Abhayaratne with a nett 73 won the silver division of the September Ladies Golf Union monthly medal with Suwaneetha Selvaratnam with a nett 74.
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