Sailor Hemantha Kumara wins Air Force Cycle Tour

Bernard PERERA

Hemantha Kumara of Sri Lanka Navy became the overall winner of the Sri Lanka Air Force organised cycle tour winning the second stage clocking a time of 3.54.18 secs to reach Colombo from Nuwara Eliya. On Friday he clocked 5.18.46 secs. His timing for the whole event was 9.13.04 secs for the distance of 400 kms.

His closest rival was Sri Lanka Army’s Wasantha Harischandra who had an aggregate of 9 hrs 13.12 secs. Hemantha finished the stage I an Friday as the winner at Bandarawela. The two riders who followed all the way to Bandarawela K. S. Kumara and Janak Sumanaweera though finishing with the first bunch yesterday had to be satisfied with fifth and sixth positions. Jeevan Jayasinghe who finished as the second runner up yesterday in the second stage failed to find a place among the top ten and it was Police’s Sudeera Nilanga who took the 3rd slot.

Yesterday the race began at Nuwara Eliya at 11.00 am and proceeded along Bambulakele and came up to Beragala pass in a full bunch. The down hill from there onwards saw eleven riders break off and kept on moving upto Gampola where once again the they broke off with four pushing ahead.

These four riders were in full control of the race passing Kadugannawa and Pilimatalawa sprint while extending their lead to almost a kilometre. (1.50 secs) But the second bunch comprising of about 20 riders never gave up the chase and were seen riding to their fullest capability.

Their effort saw eight riders from the front line making use of the sprint at Nittambuwa, and moved along together upto the finish line.

It was a hectic battle from Yakkala to Colombo with all riders making every effort to get a substantial lead but none could achieve this. But the notable feature was the setback of Jayathilleke (SL Army) who was in front from Gampola but lost his third position. He could not catch up and had to receive the chequered flag with the third bunch with a time of 3 hrs 54.13 secs.

Hemantha Kumara was also declared as the winner of the sprints.

He had a tally of 15 points from six sprints. It was also interesting to note that he failed to collect points from four sprints but collected the maximum of 10 for the final sprint to Colombo and the 5 points he gained on Friday’s sprint at Pelmadulla was sufficient for him to go with the trophy.

The runner upto him in this class was Sudeera Nilanga of Police who had 11 points under his belt.

The event conducted by Cycling Federation of Sri Lanka and organised by Sri Lanka Air Force for the tenth successive year was sponsored by Singer Sri Lanka Ltd. Air Force arranged this event also as a part of 58th anniversary celebrations.

Name 				Club 		Time 
Hemantha Kumara 		Navy “A” 	9.13.04 
Wasantha Harischandra 		Army “A” 	9.13.12
Sudeera Nilanga 		SL Police “A” 	9.13.59 
Indika Warnasuriya 		Army “B” 	9.15.26 
K. S. Kumara 			Navy “A” 	9.15.45 
Janak Sumanaweera Winged 	Wheel “A” 	9.16.53
Nalinda Amila Kumara 		Navy “B” 	9.18.10 
Nihal Silva 			Navy “A” 	9.20.23 
Uddika Jayathilake 		Army“A”Wageners 9.20.29 
Upul Lokuge 			SL Police “A” 	9.21.01