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| Sunday, 14 August 2005 |
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Cooray pulls out Dinesh Weerawansa reporting from Finland HELSINKI, August 13 - It was a disappointing performance by Sri Lanka's Anuradha Indrajith Cooray who pulled out of the 10th IAAF World Championship marathon just before the halfway mark here this evening. Cooray, who also competed at last year's Olympic Games in Athens and did well to secure a place within the top 30, was completely off colour. He was never at his brilliant best and was in the back bunches before he was forced to retire. He was not immediately available for comment but unconfirmed team sources said the Lankan long distance runner had withdrawn midway through the race due to a hamstring injury. Cooray, who was determined to better her career best here, was badly hampered by the wet weather conditions and extremely cold weather which has been associated with the Finnish summer this year. Cooray was placed 38th after the first 20km with a timing of one hour, one minute and 59 seconds. Misfortune struck Cooray in the next five km. At 20km, eventual silver medallist Isegwe was in the lead in 1:00.59. Defending champion Gharib Jaouad of Morocco, after being placed 11t at last year's Olympic Games in Athens, came back strongly to bag the gold in two hours, 10 minutes and 10 seconds. But he had to survive a last lap battle with Christopher Isegwe (TAN) who was just 11 second behind to return a personal best 2:10.21 and settle for the silver. Tsuyoshi Takaoka of Japan had a season's best 2:11.16 to win the bronze, slightly ahead of team mate from Tokyo Toshinari Takaok (2:11.53). |
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