Asian Games: Showers of blessings for the Lankan athletes in their welcome to the village

Sri Lanka were among the five Hangzhou Asian Games athletes’ contingents which were welcomed at the Games Athletics Centre here on Friday.

The athletes were welcomed by the Head of Hangzhou Asian Games Village - Li Huolinin, in a simple but elaborate ceremony that was also blessed by a slight shower, thus bringing to an end of the dry spell that the athletes experienced until that point.

The Hangzhou Games authorities and the heads of the five respective contingents exchanged pleasantries with the Chef-de-mission to the Sri Lankan contingent, Nishanthe Piyasena leading the way.

The five teams that were welcomed were Bahrain, Laos, Sri Lanka, Tajikistan and the UAE.

In the competition arena, rower Mohamed Nafiran redeemed himself on September 21 at the Men’s Double Sculls Repechage 1 when he came in second with a timing of 07mts 48:92secs,  and earned a place in the semi-finals, where he qualified for Final ‘B’ with a timing of 07mts 57:55secs at the Fuyang Water Sports Centre.

Also on the same day, Nafiran along with Nuwan Sampath came in fourth in Men’s Double Sculls, Repechage 1 and qualified for Final ‘B’ with a timing of 07mts 23.07secs while Maheshi Badra and Jayani Hirunika came in sixth in Women’s Double Sculls, Repechage 1 and qualified for Final ‘B’ with a timing of 08mts 20.63secs.

At the Ningbo Banbianshan Volleyball Centre, the Sri Lankan Beach Volleyball duo of Deepika Bandara and Chathurika Madushani won against the South Korean duo – Shin Jieun and Kim Seyeon, in the Women’s Preliminary Round with score of 2-0 on the same day but lost against the Philippines with a score of 0-2 on Friday.

Meanwhile, Sailor Taalya Tranchell came in sixth place in Race 1, 2 and 3, but managed to surge forward to the third place in Race 4 in Girl’s Dinghy – ILCA4.

In Boy’s Dinghy – ILCA4, Sailor Tharen Nanayakkara came in 11th Race 1 and 2, rose to 10th in Race 3 but went back to 11th place in Race 4.

These games were held at the Ningbo Banbianshan beach Volleyball Centre.

Sri Lankan cricket journey was kick-started on Friday when the women’s team stepped into the quarter-final of the proceedings against Thailand in a bid to defend or upgrade their Incheon bronze at the Zhejiang University of Technology Cricket Field.

Sri Lanka won the toss and elected to bowl as the Lankan lasses made 84 for 2 (Sanjeewani 32, Putthawong 2-21), to comfortably beat Thailand, who made 78 for 7 (Sutthiruang 31, Priyadharshani 4-10), by 8 wickets.