Karunaratne receives w/o in second match

From our special cor. in Rio

RIO DE JANEIRO, Aug. 13 - Sri Lanka's national champion Niluka Karunaratne received a walk over in his second Group 'P' match of the Olympic Games men's singles badminton tournament at Riocentro last evening. Karunaratne was due to play Kevin Cordon of Guatemala in his group 'P' match but the Pan American champion was forced to concede a walkover due to an injury.

The Lankan lad who lost his opening Group 'P' match to China's Long Chen in straight sets 7-21, 10-21 will now have to play his last group match against Adrian Dziolko.

The Polish, ranked 58th in the world, will take on Karunaratne on Sunday at 3.55 pm local time (12.25 am SL time on Monday). Cordon lost his opening group 'P' match to Dziolko 1-2.

Having won the keenly contested first set, Cordon could not maintain the same pace as Dziolko came back strongly to win by two sets to one 18-21, 21-10, 21-13.

Defending men's singles badminton champion Lin Dan of China registered his second successive win in the tournament when he beat Vladimir Malkov of Russia in straight sets 21-18, 21-7.

On the previous day, Dan crushed Austrian David Obernosterer, also in straight sets 21-5, 21-11 in their group 'E' first round match.

The 32-year-old London 2012 gold medallist is in fine form and is roaring to retain the title with another blistering performance.