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 15th August 1999 |
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Sriyani completes fantastic doubleChannaka de Silva and Shane Seneviratne reporting from KandySriyani Kulawansa completed a fantastic double on the final day to be crowned the most outstanding female athlete while P.K.Sujith Rohitha, who established the meet's only Sri Lanka record, was adjudged the best male athlete as the silver jubilee National Sports Festival ended at the Bogambara Stadium yesterday. Kulawansa won her pet event - the 100 m. hurdles- in an excellent 13.34 seconds, just .07 seconds off her own meet record to show her prowess as track records were hard to come by on a grass track. Later Kulawansa clinched the 100 metre sprint easily as her would-have-been tough rival Damayanthi Darsha opted to stay away. Rohitha, a veteran on the scene, having first won a SAF Games gold in 1991, displayed his evergreen skills, bettering his own Sri Lanka record on the second day. Rohitha recorded a jump of 7.86 metres to better his own mark of 7.76 by a superb margin of 10 centimetres. There were four more games records yesterday. Sunil Jayaweera , representing Uva set up a new record in the day's very first event itself when he timed 14.27.88 in the 5000 metres event. Shantha Mendis who set up the earlier record of 14.29.44 at last year's meet did not take part as he was in Croatia representing Sri Lanka Army at the World Military Games. Sri Lanka record holder Dharshani Mutuhunayake set up a new games record of 12.71 metres in the women's shot putt while L.R.Siribaddana, who owned the previous games mark of 12.53 metres also surpassed her own record and finished a close second with a throw of 12.70 metres.. P.K.Aluvihara, another Sri Lanka record holder, threw the javelin to a distance of 68.89 metres, to better his last year's games record of 66.42 meters. One of Sri Lanka's promising athletes Ruwan Pradeep, continued his record breaking habit, soaring to a height of 4.61 metres to break his own games record 4.60 metres set last year. Perera who has established 23 Sri Lankan records in recent times, bettered his own mark again and again with monotonous regularity, is the undisputed pole vault champion of the country, but unfortunately failed his attempt to set a new national mark of 4.86 metres. Underlining the difficulty to achieve good timings on track, there were just two track records for the whole meet - yesterday's record by Jayaweera and Keshani Samarakoon on the second day in the 5000 metre events for men and women. Western Province ,as usual, won the athletics championships by a huge margin and Western Province overall team also emerged triumphant. In line for tennis tripleBy Annesley FerreiraBoth Anushka Rajiyah and Shalini Pereira who are in line for a triple at the 84th National Tennis Championships, cleared their first hurdle by taking the women's doubles final at Green Path yesterday. Rajiyah and Pereira beat the unseeded pair Manisha Abeywardena and Umadanthi Dias 6/2, 6/4. In another final, with the day's much looked forward to men and women's singles finals being put off due to wet conditions in the morning, the top seeds in the men's over 35 singles, Aruna Seneviratne and Ravi Subramaniam, were beaten by the bottom seeds. Bottom seeds Arjan Perera and Chammika de Silva beat Aruna and Ravi 6/1, 6/0. The much looked forward to men's singles match between Asiri Iddamalgoda (also in line for a treble) and Jayendra Wijesekera, the number 3 seed, will be played on Tuesday (August 17) at 3.15 p.m. Today's line-up will feature the mixed doubles final between top seeds Anushka Rajiyah and Asiri Iddamalgoda and Shalini Pereira and Sudantha Soysa at 8 a.m. Also scheduled to be played this morning is the over 45 singles final and the over 55 men's doubles finals. The women's singles final between Anushka Rajiyah and Shalini Pereira will be worked off at 3.15 p.m. today and the men's doubles final between top seeds Asiri Iddamalgoda/Jayendra Wijeyesekera and Rohan de Silva/Arjun Fernando. This will be followed by the over 45 men's doubles final. Navy go down fighting to CRBy Bernie WijesekeraThe gallant Navy, after leading 12-10 at the half, went down fighting to lose a cliff-hanger to the CR&FC by 25 points (two goals and two tries) to 24 (two goals and two tries) in a Clifford Cup k.o. match at Longden Place yesterday. What a game! The sailors with a set of green horns, played their hearts out with an unyielding approach to put tremendous pressure to dissect the CR defence and planted two tries before lemons. The first was by 'lock' Dunstan Jayasuriya, off a scrum close to the line, which was converted by fly-half Kasun Waduge in the 15th minute. CR reduced with a penalty through Sunitha Fernando 7-3. The sailors were again to the fore when they scored off a ruck through Jagath Priyantha. CR, undaunted scored a try off a short-tap to start off winger Kishan Musafer's hat-trick of tries. Sanitha Fernando added the extra points. After the turn-around CR changed their ploy by indulging in running rugby. They hit back with a vengeance they scored two corner-flag tries through Musafer, who put the finishing touches. Both were unconverted: 20-12. Their fifth try was by dazzling fullback, Asanga Rodrigo, which was unconverted: 25-12. During the dying stages of the game, the sailors added some sparks to score two sparkling tries. The first off a superb move for centre M.R.Saldin to score, which went unconverted. Fired up by this, they had the CR on the hop when Kasun Waduge went over the line. He himself converted it to make it 25-24. In the second there was some unwarranted play to which the referee paid no heed. Today's matches: Army play Havelocks at Longden Place and CH&FC take on Police at Havelock Park Wattala Cagers down Air ForceBy Ravi NagahawatteWattala Cagers went through some anxious moments against Air Force before winning 74-70 in a Kings Trophy Inter-club Basketball Championship fixture at the Otters Club Courts yesterday. Wattala displayed tremendous skill and flashing speed as they outplayed their much taller opponents to take the first half 42-26. Manjula (25), Thushara (19 )and Maxwell (18) chipped in with valuable points for the winners to have the score board ticking. But the Airmen came back fighting and almost turned tables on the Wattala lads by winning the second half at 44-32. Asanka (18), Susil (13) and Pushpakumara (6) made their presence felt with many well executed baskets and gave Air Force a lot of hope with an inspiring second half rally. But the winners scored during the vital moments of the game and continued to lead overall. In the women's match played late in the evening the Air Force women's cagers had to stave off late burst by Otters BC to pull off a thrilling 67-60 win. The Air Force women led 41-30 at half time. It was a spectacular game with both teams dishing out high class action from start which saw the spectators lapping up every minute of the match. The game got to exciting stage when Otters BC reduced the score to 58-59 with just four minutes left. HoweverAir Force found four baskets at crucial stages and pulled off a nail-biting win. Kandy romp to victoryFrom Aubrey KuruppuIt was a mismatch of gigantic proportions as Kandy SC used their special speed and power to launch assault after assault on the harried, hapless Air Force defence which found itself unable to withstand Nittawela's high flyers. The result was a crushing 94 points (7 goals, 9 tries) to 8 (1 try, 1 penalty) victory for Kandy SC in their Clifford Cup quarter-final game at Nittawela last evening. Kandy could afford to waste some possession, play a little carelessly at times and even on occasion, strive for individual glory. It mattered not a bit because the Airmen were simply outclassed. Kandy did pay their opponents the compliment of playing almost their full team. Amarasinghe was a notable absentee. Weerakkody suffered a muscle injury midway in the first half and this forced Ibrahim to occupy the last line of defence. He showed his versatility with clean collections and some good conversions. Kandy's players must have thought that all their circumstances had come together. They played with complete freedom as the defence was far from testing. It seemed as though they took it in turns to score. Fly half Sajith Mallikarachchi scored five times, Weerakkody and Omar twice, while Hettiarachchi, Bandaranaike,Sameera de Silva, B.Wijesuriya and substitute Zameer touched down once.
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