Lankan athletes win five of six golds

Susanthika, Surendra fastest in South Asia

Reports of the 10th South Asian Games in Colombo yesterday were filed by Leslie Fernando and Ranjan Anandappa.

Sri Lankan athletes put up a tremendous performance to win five gold medals on the final day of the athletic events of the 10th South Asian Games held at the Sugathadasa Stadium yesterday.

Sprint "Queen" Susanthika Jayasinghe bagged the first gold for Sri Lanka in the 100 metres "Dash" clocking 11:33 secs Chathurangani de Silva took the silver 11:76 secs and the Pakistani Sanaf Siddiqi 12:07 secs collected the bronze. She proved to be the fastest woman in the track. Susanthika achieved a golden double on the opening day when she won the gold in her pet event (200 metres).

She said that from the very moment she set eyes on her competitors she knew she would win because she suddenly was overwhelmed by confidence.

R. D. U. S. Surendra blazed home to a close victory in the 100 metres dash. Surendra got off to a fine start and gave his closet rival Anil Kumar of India a good contest and bag the goal timing of 10.25 secs. Kumar finished second in a thrilling manner 10.53 secs. So Surendra also proved to be the fastest man on the track winning the gold.

The third gold come from Chaminda Sampath in the Mens triple jump. Sampath used his superior speed and strength to a leap of 16.26 metres.

The ace high jumper Manjula Kumara accounted for the fourth gold medal in the men's high jump event.

Manjula went over the bar gracefully to clear a height of 2:19 Metres to win the gold. Indian competitor Benedict Streley who also cleared the same height as Manjula bagged the silver. But Manjula used less attempt than sterley.

Sri Lanka mens 4x400 metres relay "quartet" Prasanna Amarasekera, Rohitha Pushpakumara, Sugath Thilakaratne and Rohan Pradeep Kumara exhibited their superior skills, speed and excellent changing baton to win the gold returning a time of 3:09:25 secs.

Indian athletes also faced prominently to win gold in the 800 metre men and women event and the 4x400 metre women relay.

Nepal and Pakistan had to be satisfied with a gold each in the 3000 metre steeple chase and mens discus throw.

High jump - (Men)

1. Manjula Kumara (Sri Lanka) 2.19 metre, 2. Benedict Sterley (India) 2.19 metre, 3. A. D. Nalin Priyanka (Sri Lanka) 2.16 metre.

Discus throw - (Men)

1. Basharat Ali (Pakistan) 55.10 metre, 2. Amrit Pal Singh (India) 52.89 metre, 3. Harpreet Singh (India) 52.26 metre.

Triple jump - (Men)

1. S. D. Chaminda Sampath (Sri Lanka) 16.26 metre, 2. Wasseem Khan (Pakistan) 15.85 metre, 3. Binu Mathew (India) 15.82 metre.

800 metres - (Women)

1. Pinki Parmanik (India) 2:03:81 Secs, 2. S. Shanthi (India) 2:04:77 Secs, 3. Bijshra Parveen (Pakistan) 2.08:04 Secs.

800 Metre-Men

1. Francis Sagairaj (India) 1:50:23 Secs, 2. S. Abeynayake (Sri Lanka) 1:50:30 Secs, W. G. A. K. Weliwita (Sri Lanka) 1:50:36 Secs.

3000 Metres steeple chase - Men

1. Rajendra Bhandari (Nepal) 8:51:76 Secs, 2. O. M. Prakash (India) 9:00:99 Secs, 3. Rana Bahadur Subra (India) 9:02:15 Secs.

100 Metres - Women

1. Susanthika Jayasinghe (Sri Lanka) 11:33 Secs, 2. Chathrangani de Silva (Sri Lanka) 11:76 Secs, 3. Sadaf Siddiqui (Pakistan) 12:07 Secs.

100 Metres - Men

1. R. D. U. S. Surendra (Sri Lanka) 10:52 Secs, 2. Anil Kumar (India) 10:53 Secs, 3. Jagdish Basak (India) 10:61 Secs.

4 x 400 Metres Relay - Women

1. India - 3:33:01 Secs, 2. Sri Lanka 3:39:48 Secs, 3. Pakistan - 3:44:81 Secs.

4 x 400 Metres Relay - Men

1. Sri Lanka - 3:09:28 Secs, 2. Pakistan - 3:10:47 Secs, 3. India - 3:11:25 Secs.