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Exceeded all expectations

by Pelham Juriansz

Bjorn Wangemann, a Director of the International Association of Athletic Federations(IAAF), assessing the Asian Athletic Championship, said the Championship exceeded all expectations and that the local media should not have taken a critical stand.

Susanthika making a thundering start.  Pic. Saman Mendis

Minister of Sports Johnston Fernando also expressed his satisfaction with Sri Lanka's performance and said that the 4x400 men's event was a satisfying performance as was the performance by Sriyani Kulawansa and "Golden Girl" Susanthika Jayasinghe. Sri Lanka bagged 3 gold medals, one silver and two bronze.

Although most athletes and officials were satisfied with the races and the conducting of the Championships on the other side of the coin was the official from Austria who was in charge of the defective timing devices.

Roman Merhar from Alge Timing, the Company responsible for the Timing at the Games said that there was a problem with the timing devices in some races. Roman, however was not very happy with the preparation for the event as they had requested that the finish towers have windows but when they arrived there were no windows and " we were not happy with it" commented Roman. " There was a problem with the start timings as the start guns were not connected to the lines and we had to manually operate it. The microphones on the pistol at the starting line were not connected properly. The force of the shot at the start of the race triggers the timing device in the staring room. "We had recommended that six persons be given for us to handle the timing devices but we were given only two.

Saudi Arabian skipper, Hamdam Pishi who won the Gold Medal in the 400m at the recently concluded Asian Athletic Championships was elated at the performance of his team despite the fact that his team won only three of the expected seven at the Championships.Maintaining a time of 44.66 secs against a strong wind he was satisfied with the conditions at the Stadium. Chua Chong Jim from Singapore, an official of the Singapore team said as a first time visitor to Sri Lanka he was impressed at they way Sri Lanka organised the event.

Also extremely positive with his responses was Qatar team Manager , Sulaiman, who was of the opinion that the conditions were excellent for the Asian Championships and there was nothing negative or lacking in the facilities or the care given to the entire contingent. When asked about the lighting at the Stadium and the opening and closing ceremonies he was all praise for the organising capabilities of the Sri Lankans, and said that there were no problem whatsoever with the lighting.

This was the best performance at Track and Field ever at an Asian Athletic Championships by the Qatar team and they won eight gold medals and were second only to China overall and won the overall Men's events.

Having a contingent of 34 helped and this will augur well for future Tournaments as it was the first time that they had visited Sri Lanka and before coming they had had some trepidation about the country because of the negative reports.

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