Sri Lankns fail in cycling and squash [November 22 2010]

Sri Lanka’s Lakman Wijeratne was placed 21st among 41 competitors who took part in men’s individual road race with a timing of four hours, 15 minutes, 04.31 seconds at the Asian Games in Guanzhou today. Kam Po Wong of Hong Kong bagged the gold medal in this 180km race which included nine 20km laps, clocking 4:14:54.18.

Sri Lanka suffered a humiliating loss in squash as they suffered a humiliating 0-3 loss at the hands of Pakistan in the men’s pool A team event. Navin Samarasinghe surrendered meekly under 13 minutes. He offered hardly any resistance, except in the first set, in going down to Pakistan’s Farhan Mehboob in straight sets 10-12, 2-11, 3-11.

Comparatively, Gihan Suwaris showed a slightly better form in taking his game to a four setter, though he went down to Yasir Ali Butt 12-14, 11-8, 1-11, 9-11 in 27 minutes. The fourth match of the tie saw Danish Atlas Khan beating Binura Jayasuriya 11-6, 11-7, 11-2 in 25 minutes. World No. 1 Nicol Ann David dismissed Taiwan’s Annie Au Wing Chi 3-1 to clinch the women's squash singles title and keep her career in the sport's stratosphere, while fellow Malaysian Mohamad Azlan Iskandar followed suit in the men's competition.

David said she felt like she was on another planet after winning the Commonwealth Games in New Delhi in October, and her feet have barely touched the ground since.

"I'm still hanging around (up there) somewhere," said the five-time world champion after cruising to her second Asian Games title. "This gold medal means a lot to me, because I'm fighting for my country and I've got the whole of Malaysia behind me,” she said. Meeting world No. 17 Au in the title game seemed predestined for David, who has been matched with a Hong Kong, China player in all four of her Asian Games finals over the last 12 years.