Sri Lanka continued its poor form in archery, squash and cycling at the 16th Asian Games in China today. Shashikala Kumarasinghe lost to North Korean (0-4) while Dilhara Salgado went down to China’s Ming Cheng (0-4) in their women’s individual elimination matches of the archery competition.
Sri Lanka’s Lasantha Gunatillake finished 25th out of 26 competitors who completed the women’s 100km individual road race which consisted of five 20km laps. Gunatillake cut a sorry figure in clocking two hours, 47 minutes and 54.06 seconds with an average speed of 35.735kmph. Taiwan’s Mei Yu Hsiao won the gold medal, returning a timing of 2:47:46.12, maintaining an average speed of 35.764kmph. Indonedia’s Santia Trikusuma (2:47:46.52) won the silver, followed by Na Zhao of China (2:47:46.63 - bronze).
The other disappointing story for Sri Lanka at the Asian Games came in squash after the local team suffered a humiliating 0-3 defeat at the hands of Kuwaitis, who are competing under the IOC flag as their NOC is still defunct. Nasser Al Ramezi beat Gihan Suwaris 0-3 in 17 minutes 11-4, 11-9, 11-2. Navin Samarasinghe lost to Abdullah Almezayen in almost similar fashion 1-22, 5-11, 6-11. Binura Jayasuriya battled for 20 minutes before losing to Ammar Altemimi, also in straight sets 7-11, 2-11, 5-11. Sri Lanka’s continuous poor form saw them finishing at the bottom of the Group ‘A’, having lost all their three ties played here. Hong Kong and Pakistan share the top slot, winning three ties each. The group ‘B’ of the men’s team event in squash is jointly headed by India and Malaysia with four wins each.