Sri Lanka’s swimmer Heshan Unamboowe in action today

Dinesh WEERAWANSA reporting from England

OLYMPIC GAMES: LONDON, July 28 - Sri Lanka’s ace swimmer Heshan Unamboowe will be seen in action on the third day of the XXXth Olympic Games here on Sunday. He is down to swim in 100m back stroke first qualifying round to be worked off.

Unamboowe has been training in Melbourne, Australia for over a week and is confident that he could make his presence here felt.

“I have been training hard for this. But Olympics is definitely a tough assignment. Yet, I want to come out with my best performance to mark my presence felt here,” a determined Unamboowe said.

There are 43 swimmers competing in six men’s 100m back stroke heats. However, Unamboowe has been drawn in heat 1, along with Zane Jordan.

Besides Unamboowe, the only other swimmer who will represent Sri Lanka at London 2012 Games is Reshini Udugampola who will swim in women’s 100m free style first round on Monday morning. There are 49 competitors who will be playing under eight heats.

Designed by internationally acclaimed architect Zaha Hadid, the breathtaking Aquatics Centre at London Olympic Park is one of the permanent venues specially constructed for the 2012 edition.

It forms part of the gateway to the Olympic Park – more than two-thirds of spectators will enter the Park at the south-east corner via a bridge that forms part of the venue’s roof.

Capacity crowd expected

With a capacity of 17,500, the Aquatics Centre’s spectacular wave-like roof is 160m long and up to 80m wide – giving it a longer single span than Heathrow Terminal 5. The venue features a 50m competition pool, a 25m competition diving pool, a 50m warm-up pool and a ‘dry’ warm-up area for divers. The Water Polo competition is being hosted next door in the temporary

Hosts Great Britain will be looking forward to make the best use of home advantage and win many gold medals as possible - just as China did as the hosts in 2008. Four years ago in Beijing, Britain won 47 medals in their finest Olympic performance for a century. The team took 19 golds to finish fourth overall in the medal table.

Athletics – showpiece of Games

Track and field competition will undoubtedly be the showpiece of the Games and will commence only on August 2. However, Britain won only a solitary gold medal in Athletics at the last Olympics. Reigning world champion Christine Ohuruogu picked up the only British gold medal in athletics with a blistering run of 49.62 seconds to see off Shericka Williams and Sanya Richards-Ross. But the Briton’s race-winning time was not particularly fast - it would have achieved no higher than bronze at each of the Olympics since 1976.

However, there is an outside chance for the host nation to pin their chances on at least one more athletics. Dai Greene says he is “desperate” to win an Olympic gold medal in the 400m. The Great Britain athletics captain is one of the hot favourites to bring home a gold medal. The Welshman has already won World Championships, European Championships and Commonwealth Games gold medals and is determined to add an Olympic title.”I have been training all year to get the gold medal, I don’t imagine myself winning bronze or silver,” said Greene.”I am certainly in touching distance. I have set a personal best already this year and I am desperate to get that gold medal. Hopefully, I can bring it home for the country.”

Llanelli – still second fastest

A product of Llanelli, has struggled with a virus and had knee surgery in December but is still the second fastest 400m hurdler in the world this year. He set a personal best of 47.84 seconds at Paris in July, just outside Kriss Akabusi’s British record of 47.82 seconds. Kevin Young’s Olympic record, set in Barcelona in 1992, stands at 46.78 seconds.

The 26-year-old star ran his third fastest time at Crystal Palace recently and has shown signs that he is returning to form at the right time. This will be Greene’s debut Olympics and he says he is aware London 2012 will be the biggest event he will compete in.