Susanthika will run for gold

Lankan swimmers, shooters fail

Dinesh Weerawansa reporting from Doha

Asian games: Olympic medalist Susanthika Jayasinghe said she will make every endeavor to win a gold medal at the 15th Asian Games in Doha. In an exclusive interview with the 'Sunday Observer', the Sydney 2000 Olympic Games bronze medalist confirmed that she would be completing in three events at the Doha Games - women's 100m, 200m and 4 x 100m relay. Jayasinghe, who will celebrate her 31st birthday in a fortnight's time, said her preparations for the Asian Games were badly affected by viral flu, which confined her to a hospital bed for several days.

"But those are no excuses. Whether it is fever or any other problem, I am not going to consider them as excuses. It's true that my preparations were hampered.

But I am confident that I should be able to run well and make my country proud. She will be looking forward to elusive medal that is missing from her rich collection, which includes an Olympic bronze and an IAAF World Championship silver - feat which no other Sri Lankan has achieved yet.

Despite competing in three successive Asian Games since 1994, she is yet to win a gold medal in her pet event of women's 200m.

However, Jayasinghe feels that she could make it in her farewell Asian Games in Doha. "I know it is a tough challenge, but I am ready to meet that. I still have that dream feeling in my mind. I caught that viral flu Chikumgunya. I am gradually getting back to normal," she said. Nevertheless, it will be a gigantic task for Jayasinghe as she will have to run on five successive days from Friday (8). "I have 100m on the first two days, then the 4 x 100m relay on December 10 and the 200m thereafter. It's not going to be easy. But I have the spirit," she added.

Meanwhile, Sri Lanka painted a poor picture on the opening day of the Asian Games swimming and shooting competitions.

Sri Lanka's golden girl at the 10th South Asian Games in Colombo three months ago, Mayumi Raheem secured only the fourth place in the women's 50m back stroke heat one worked off at Hamad Aquatic Centre on Saturday. Swimming in lane six, the Singapore based Lankan lass clocked a timing of only 36.14 seconds to finish fourth behind Qun Wang (China - 33.49), Ka Yu Suen (Hong Kong - 33.98) and Ru En Ho (Singapore - 34.62).

Raheem's team mate, Miniruwani Samarakoon was placed last in women's 100m butterfly heat one with an unimpressive timing of one minute and 12.62 seconds.

This heat was won by Singaporean Li Tao in 59.53 seconds.

The third Lankan swimmer on action at Sunday's events - Imara Fahim fared no better in finishing last in women's 200m freestyle heat one. She clocked one minute and 10.90 seconds. China's Yu Yang came first in exactly one minute. Two more Lankan swimmers are due to be seen in action on Sunday (3). They are Milinda Wickremasinghe in men's 100m butterfly heat one and Heshan Unamboowe in men's 200m freestyle heat two. At the Lusail Shooting range here in Qatar, Sri

Lanka's South Asian Games gold medalist Mangala Samarakoon was not at his brilliant best. He made too many errors in totaling 577 points to finish 39th in men's 10m air rifle qualifying round. He had breaks of 93, 97, 95, 95, 97, 97. Finishing first in the first round of this event was China's Liu Tianyou with a perfect 100s in the first four and 99 each to total 598.

The other Lankan shooters to be seen in action on Saturday - Priyanthi Illangaratne and Devika Ranasinghe too failed to impress. Illangaratne finished 46th with a total of 379 points while Ranasinghe was three places behind with a 377 in the women's 10m air rifle qualification round.

Li Du of China aggregated 398 points to secure the first place. At the Al-Rayyan Indoor Hall, South East Asian Games champions Thailand remained unbeaten at the Asian Games women's volleyball competition. Having completed a convincing win against Tajikistan in their first pool B match, the Thai lasses accounted for their second successive win against much fancied Mongolia by three sets to nil - 25-11, 25-12, 25-18.

The team from Bangkok got off to a perfect start and dominated from the service line, sending powerful jump serves into Mongolian territory which were hard to defend against.

Malika Kanthong was once again the most outstanding for the Thai team as she finished the match with a total of 12 points - 10 from ferocious spiking and one point each through blocking and a service ace.

Meanwhile, Wang Mingjuan of China demonstrated a performance of sheer power to claim the 48kg women's weightlifting gold medal at Al-Dana Banquet Hall after leading the snatch, clean and jerk, and overall total categories to dominate the rest of the field.

After taking a commanding lead in the snatch, Wang waited for her nearest rivals to lift in the clean and jerk before entering the competition to topple Thailand's Pensiri Laosirikul and Thongyim Bunphithak off the top of the leaderboard in the final stages.

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