Manjula, Nalin, Prasanna and Subashini in action:

Asian Games athletic action from today

Dinesh WEERAWANSA reporting from China

ASIAD: GUANGZHOU, Nov. 20. - The track and field competition of the 16th Asian Games which will begin at Aoti Main Stadium here on Sunday is going to be the biggest crowd puller of the 45-nation sports extravaganza.

Undoubtedly, the most glamorous and much looked forward to event in any Games is athletics and there is no exception here in this southern Chinese capital which is hosting the biggest ever Asian Games in its 59-year-old history.

Four Sri Lankans will be seen in action of the opening day of the athletic competition and the Chef-de-Mission of the Sri Lanka contingent Prema Pinnawale said today that all athletes are in good shape and are eagerly looking forward to their respective events.

Asian Championship gold medallist Manjula Kumara Wijesekera, one of Sri Lanka’s biggest medal prospects, is due to compete in the men’s high jump qualifying Group ‘A’ commencing at 9 am local time, along with compatriot Nalin Priyantha, the bronze medallist at the last South Asian Games in Dharka earlier this year.

Of the nine high jumpers drawn in Group A, Qatar’s Rashid Al Mannai has the best season’s performance of 2.25m, followed by China’s Haiqiang Huang (2.24) and Sri Lanka’s Wijesekera (2.23). “It is a big event and I have been working hard. I will make every effort to clear my best,” Wijesekera said on the eve of his pet event.

Qatar’s Mutaz Essa Barshim, drawn to compete in Group B of the men’s high jump qualifying round, has the best season’s performance among all 18 competitors. Sri Lanka’s Nalin Priyantha has cleared 2.21m this season and is placed third in Group B on their performances this season. The other two Sri Lanka athletes to be seen in action on Sunday, besides Wijeskeera and Priyantha, are Prasanna Sampath Amarasekera and R.M. Chandriya Subashini, both in the 400m, men’s and women’s respectively. Subashini, who won a sprint double with gold medals in women’s 200m and 400m at the 2010 South Asian Games, was placed last in women’s 400m final of the 2006 Doha Asian Games clocking 56.57.

But she is a vastly improved athlete since then and clocked 54.27 seconds in Dhaka earlier this year. The most outstanding Sri Lankan woman sprinter in women’s 400m at Asian Games was Damayanthi Darsha who had back to back gold medals in Bangkok 1998 and Busan 2002 and yours truly was there when the Lankan sprint queen created history.

Amarasekera has been Sri Lanka’s most outstanding sprinter since the retirements of Sugath Tillakaratne and Rohan Pradeep Kumara. He has made a slow but steady progress, winning Asian Championship medals. But Amarasekera, who finished seventh in men’s 400m final at the last Doda 2006 Asian Games with a timing of 47.27 seconds, will face a tough challenge tomorrow.

Sunday’s day one athletic schedule starts with men’s high jump qualifying round at 9 am and ends with women’s 3,000 steeple chase at 8.05 pm local time, deciding the sixth athletic gold medal that will be on offer tomorrow. The other five athletic finals down for decision on the opening day are men’s 20km race walking, men’s hammer throw, women’s shot putt, women’s 10,000m and men’s 5,000m.

Shattered dreams in Beach Volleyball

Sri Lanka’s dream of a medal in beach volleyball was shattered when they were eliminated after today’s pre-quarter finals. Pubudu Ekanayake and Asanka Pradeep Kumara of Sri Lanka lost to Alexander and Alexey of Kazakhstan in straight sets. They failed to produce anything outstanding as in the previous games and went down 11-21, 4-21 in just 27 minutes.

Sri Lanka’s women’s team, comprising Leena Sandamali and Niroshna Lakmali too suffered similar fate. They too suffered a 0-2 defeat at the hands of a far superior Chinese duo of Huangying and Yueyuan 3-21, 10-21 in 25 minutes.

The Lankan archers were completely off target at the Aoti Archery Range this morning. Nipun Seneviratne (46th with a score of 584), Lakmal Ranasinghe (51st - 581 points) and Indranath Perera (53rd - 570 points) looked completely off colour. Heading the last of 54 competitors who took part in the men’s individual qualification round was South Korean Woojin Kim with an impressive score of 682, followed by three of this team mates from Seoul in the next top slots.

The poor form of Seneviratne, Rajasinghe and Perera could not prevent Sri Lanka finishing 14th out of 15 in the team championship with an aggregate of only 1,715 in the team event.

South Korean took a commanding lead in archery team event with a massive 2,009 points. Sri Lanka fared no better in cycling with Lakshman Wijeratne finishing one before the last out of 20 competitors who took part in men’s individual time trial, clocking one hour, 21 minutes and 13.68 seconds. South Korea’s Hyeongmin Choe finished on top with an impressive timing of 1:08:16.12.

Sailing agony

It appeared as if Sri Lankan sailors were fighting to occupy the last places of the Asian Games sailing competition worked off at Shanwei Water Sports Centre.

Competing in the eleventh races of their respective events Sureni Gunaratne (women’s dinghy optimist), Krishan Janaka (open laser radial) and Lakshan Gunawardena (men’s mistral) were once again placed last in their respective events - eleventh round of races. The only exception was Avishka de Alwis (men’s dinghy optimist 9) who finished tenth out of 11 competitors.

Janaka and Gunawardena were once again placed last in their respective events in their twelfth and final races. But De Alwis (ninth out of 11) and Gunaratne (eighth out of nine) had a little consolation in their respective men’s and women’s dinghy optimist races.