Lankan medal hopes shattered as Achini and Upuli are knocked out

Chinthana Wasala reporting from Glasgow, Scotland

Sri Lanka’s final hope for a medal at the 20th Commonwealth Games was shattered when the women’s doubles partners Achini Rathnasiri and Upuli Samanthika Weerasinghe lost to India’s Jwala Gutta and Ashwini Ponnappa in the women’s doubles quarter final match at the Emirates Arena on Friday night.

Achini and Upuli had to face tough opposition from the Indian duo and failed to create a favourable outcome for Sri Lanka. They lost the first set 21-10. The Indians wasted no time in moving through to the semi-finals to taste a medal when they beat the Lankan duo 21-9 in the second set which lasted only eight minutes.

Jwala and Ashwhini are ranked 21st in the BWF World Doubles rankings whereas the Lankan duo is not even among the top 500. However they did well to become the only shuttlers for Sri Lanka to enter the quarters, beating New Zealanders A Rankin and M Stapleton in the women’s doubles round of 16 match earlier on Wednesday. The Lankan lasses won the first set 22-20 in a toughly contested battle but they lost the second set to the Kiwis, 18-21. However, the duo was able to win the third set to march into the quarter-finals.

The Achini-Upuli duo was the last medal hope for Sri Lanka, following the exits of Niluka and Dinuka Karunaratne, Thilini Hendahewa, Buwaneka Dullewa, Madhushika Beruwalage and Nadeesha Murukkuwandura who all failed just before the quarter-finals.

Niluka Karunaratne went down to India’s Srikanth Kidambi 2-1 during their men’s badminton singles round of 16 game, Dinuka Karunaratne lost to Malaysia’s D Liew who is among the top 45 shuttlers in the world, Buwaneka Dullewa and Madhushika Beruwalage lost to Malaysians P S Chan and L Peijing 21-13, 21-15 and Nadeesha Murukkuwandura and Madushika Beruwalage also lost to the South African duo 2-1.

Men?s 4X400m team fourth in heats

Sri Lankan men’s 4x400 metres relay team competed in the heats at the Hampden Park on Friday night amidst a full house of spectators. The Lankan relay team started off with Nalin Karunaratne and he handed over the baton to Chanaka Jayasekara.

By then, the athlete from Trinidad and Tobago was in the lead while Kenya and Nigeria were in pursuit. Lankans were in the fifth position. Chanaka handed the baton over to Anjana Gunaratne and the Sri Lanka national champion Kasun Kalhara Seneviratne finished off in the fifth position, clocking 3:08.10 seconds. However the Kenyans were disqualified and it made Sri Lankans the fourth in the second heat. Trinidad and Tobago and Nigeria made it to the finals with 3:04.06 and 3:06.66 seconds respectively.

In a women’s doubles Table Tennis third round match, Ishara Madurangi and Erandi Warusawithana lost to England’s J Drinkhall and K Sibley 3-0. The English duo had no difficulty in outplaying the Lankans and grabbed the three setter 11-7, 11-3, 11-2.

Today is the final day of the 20th edition of the Commonwealth Games and the Lankan cyclists will compete in the last two events of the Games. The official start list for the men?s and women’s cycling road race had not been published at the time of going to press.