US survives strong Chinese challenge

Regain supremacy at London 2012 Olympic Games:

Dinesh WEERAWANSA

OLYMPIC GAMES: USA survived strong Chinese challenge to regain supremacy at the Olympic Games. Having lost its long standing upper hand to hosts China four years ago in the Beijing 2008 Games, USA came back strongly at the end to take a close lead in the final medals table of the XXXth Olympic Games concluded in London last Sunday.

A final gold medal in the sport they have mastered the best with the world renowned Dream Team - basketball, enabled the USA to end up with a rich haul of 46 gold, 29 silver and 29 bronze in a total of 104 medals.

Though many thought China would retain their supremacy, they finally settled for the second spot with 38 gold, 27 silver and 22 bronze medals. In fact, China has been taking a slim lead until the last few days before American supremacy in swimming and athletics elevated them to the top slot.

Though USA won the top slot after the Beijing 2008 debacle, the Americans failed to come anywhere near the 51 gold medals won by China as the hosts four years ago. USA has won only two gold medals more than their 36 golds won in Beijing.

Team GB comes thrid

More importantly, the Team GB made the host nation proud and enabled them to bounce back with pride and dignity as one of the best sporting nations in the world. Making best use of the home advantage, Great Britain registered its best-ever Olympic performance in 104 years to secure the third place with 29 gold, 17 silver and 19 bronze medals. Great Britain won ten gold medals more than what they achieved in China in 2008. That prompted the sports-crazy nation to call it the ‘Greatest Britain’!

In the fourth place was Russia with 24 gold, 25 silver and 33 bronze, followed by South Korea, Germany, France, Italy, Hungary and Australia. India was the best South Asian nation at the London Games, securing 55th place with two silver and four bronze medals. Of all the participating teams, 121 nations, including Sri Lanka, failed to secure a single medal.

Niluka springs surprise

For Sri Lanka, it was another Olympic Games sans medals. The only bright spot in Sri Lanka contingent was its overall captain Niluka Karunaratne who sprang the biggest surprise in the Olympic Games badminton competition at the Wembley Stadium.

Karunaratne sprang the biggest shock of the 2012 Olympic Games men’s singles competition when he humbled world’s No. 8 Kenichi Tago of Japan by two sets to nil in the men’s singles first round.

The win enabled the Lankan lad, a product of Royal College, to make it to the last 16 of the men’s singles badminton competition of the London Olympic Games.

None expected the Lankan lad to come out with such a superb display, especially to dump his much fancied opponent in straight sets 21-18, 21-16 under 45 minutes in their Group ‘C’ qualifier. But Karunaratne proved that his early prediction to be within the top ten players in the world in two years time is not a distant dream.

Fresh after a world tour during which he played in many world ranked tournaments, Sri Lanka’s undisputed shuttle king came out with the most memorable performance to protect his country’s pride. Karunaratne, who had the luxury of acquiring the services of an international coach who trained him in Warsaw, Poland prior to his arrival in London, won the first set 21-18 after a keen tussle that lasted for 22 minutes. He took the identical time to go pass the Japanese, whose mother, Eriko Ueno was one of the top badminton players in the world in the 1970s. The Lankan fared slightly better in the second set with a better victory margin in the second set.

But Karunaratne’s giant-killing run came to an end when he went down fighting to Indian Kashyap Purupalli one set to two in the pre-quarter finals. Nevertheless, the fighting qualities of Sri Lanka’s overall captain were once again demonstrated as he came back strongly to win the second set and to keep his Indian opponent under check until the middle of the decisive third set.

However, Karunaratne took time to settle down as Purupalli , ranked 24th in the world, got off to a blistering start to win the first set 21-14 in 20 minutes. Purupalli’s dream of a straight set win after a comfortable lead in the first set was demolished as Karunaratne launched a fresh attack in the second set. Karunaratne looked aggressive and confident as he sailed through comfortably to win the second set 21-15 in 19 minutes to square at one set all. It looked as if the decisive third and final set too was going to be a thriller as scores were tied at five-all before the Indian staged a magnificent comeback to win 21-14, 15-21, 9-21 in exactly one hour.

But full credit should go to the manner in which the former Royal captain fought in the middle on his Olympic debut. Besides Karunaratne, his other six team mates failed to make their presence felt and painted a poor picture.

Sonali Merril did impress

Apart from Karunaratne’s blistering performance, the only Sri Lankan Olympian to come out with some sort of notable performance was hurdler Sonali Christine Merril who clocked a season’s best 57.15 seconds. Yet she finished last in the first round heat five of women’s 400m hurdles first round. However, timing was well behind her personal best timing of 56.83 registered in Japan last year.

Merril got off to a reasonably good start and was among the top lot by the first 150m but she could not maintain her pace. She was one of the first to come out of the blocks but lacked staying power and endurance that is needed for a terrific finish.

The heat was won by Perri ShakesDrayton in 54.62 seconds, ahead of Jamaican Melaine Walker (54.78) and Ukrainian Hanna Yaroshchuk (54.81).Of the five women’s 400m hurdles first round heats, Russian Antyukh Natalya, who won the second heat, registered the best timing among 40 competitors.

Zusana Hejnova of the Czech Republic, who won the first heat in 53.96 seconds, was the only other hurdler to break the 54-second barrier in the heats.

Mangala, a poor picture

At the Royal Artillery Barracks, Sri Lanka’s Mangala Samarakoon painted a poor picture in the men’s 10m air rifle qualifying round.

He finished 45th out of 47 competitors in aggregating only 583 points with 97, 97, 99, 97, 97 and 96. In contrast, Italian Niccolo Campriani had an excellent 599 to finish on top, along with Alin George Moldoveanu who also aggregated 599 in qualifying for the finals in style.

Samarakoon failed to better the Sri Lanka record as he was eliminated after the qualifying round of the men’s 50m prone event. Samarakoon scored only 585 points, way behind his personal best of 595, in finishing 47th out of 50 shooters who took part in the event.

Former world championship gold medalist and two-time Olympic bronze medalist Martynov Sergei of Belarus had a perfect score of 600 points to equal the world record. Belgium’s Lionel Cox aggregated 599 to finish second after the qualifying round.

Reshika Udugampola finished sixth in her women’s 100m freestyle first round heat at the Aquatic Centre. Competing in the second of the seven women’s 100m qualifying round heats, Udugampola clocked one minute and 4.93 seconds to finish sixth, ahead of last-placed Magdalena Moshi of Tanzania who returned a timing of 1:05.80.

The heat two was won by Jade Howard of Zambia in 59.37 seconds, followed by Bayan Jumah (Syria – 59.78), Keran Riveros Schulz (Paraguay – 59.86), Britany Van Lange (Guyana – 1.01.62), Aina Fils Rabetsara (Madagascar – 1:02.39) and Udugampola. Of the 50 women who competed in seven 100m freestyle heats, China’s Yi Tang clocked the fastest timing of 53.28 seconds in winning the heat No.3.

Heshan Unamboowe finished second in his men’s 100m backstroke qualifying round heats. Competing in heat one of the men’s 100m back stroke event which had only two other competitors, Unamboowe finished second with a timing of 57.94 seconds.

Though it was not his personal best, his achievement is slightly better than his timing at the last FINA World Championships in Shanghai last year. The heat was won by Bradley Ally of Barbados in 56.27 seconds, followed by Unamboowe and Zane Jorden of Zambia (58.77). Of the 40 swimmers who competed in the six men’s 100m backstroke heats, the best timing was registered by American Matthew Grevers who clocked 52.92 seconds to win the heat No.6. In fact, all competitors who took part in the remaining five heats had better timings than Unamboowe, who finished 39th overall.

Cooray unimpressive

It was a pathetic performance by Sri Lanka’s leading long distance runner Anuradha Indrajith Cooray. Having finished 30th on his Olympic debut in 2004 in Athens, Cooray could only manage 25 places behind in the London 2012. Cooray secured 55th place with a timing of two hours, 20 minutes and 41 seconds - much slower than his career best mark of 2:13.08.

Stephen Kiprotich won the race to give Uganda its second gold medal in the Olympic Games, four decades after the initial feat.

Cooray ran the first five km comparatively slow but made reasonable progress thereafter. He was placed 84th after the first 5km in 16 minutes and one second, and then advanced four places ahead to become 80th at the 15km mark in 48 minutes and 15 seconds, 3.17 behind the leader at that point. By the halfway mark, he was placed 78th in one hour, eight minutes and 26 seconds. Kenya’s Wilson Kipsang Kiprotich was the first to reach the halfway mark in 1:03.15 while Cooray passed the same point five minutes and 11 seconds after him. But Wilson eventually settled for the bronze in 2:09.37.

After the first 25km, Cooray was placed 72nd and then advanced to 67th, 64th and 56th places by 30km, 35km and 40km marks respectively. Overall, Cooray advanced from 84th place after the first five km to 55th place at the finish line.

When Cooray made his Olympic debut eight years ago, he was placed 30th with a time of 2:19.25 in Athens 2004 - more than a minute better than his performance in London.

Thilini disappoints

Former Sri Lanka national women’s singles champion Thilini Jayasinghe lost both her women’s singles qualifying round matches. Jayasinghe, who in 2008 Beijing Games became the first Sri Lankan woman shuttler to compete in the century long history of the Olympic Games, failed to live up to expectations.

Jayasinghe lost her second women’s singles qualifying round game to Portugal’s Telma Santos 9-21, 11-21 at the Wembley Arena. It was the second successive defeat for Jayasinghe after Thailand’s two-time world junior champion Rachanok Intanon defeated her by two sets to nil in just 21 minutes – 21-13, 21-5. Overall, it was another pathetic performance by Sri Lanka contingent. The disappointing performance by Sri Lanka gave an indication that they will have to wait for years to find an Olympian who could emulate the great feats of Duncan White and Susanthika Jayasinghe.

Soldiers in uniform

Most Britons may think that London hosted the best ever Games in Olympic history. Perhaps, Great Britain may have come out with their best Olympic performance in recent times, but not in the form of organising the Games.

London had its own ‘firsts’. Having become the only city in the world to host the modern summer Olympic Games three times - in 1908, 1948 and 2012, it was for the first time in Olympic history that we saw soldiers in uniform as British security forces were called to provide security.

The excuse the hosts gave was that the security firm which undertook the security contract failed to find sufficient men to man the venues. That looks like a lame excuse as such high profile contracts are not allowed without evaluating the track record and ability of applicants. There was a talk that it was a ploy by the organisers to get down the military in a diplomatic manner. Of course they did it in style by getting down British soldiers in ‘camma’ uniform to wear the London 2012 Games logo

We owe a big thank you to the British security forces for the splendid job in providing security to over 40,000 members of the Olympic family – athletes, officials and media. They had a right to protect these guests and the British Army did it to perfection. At the same time, it should be mentioned that the Western media would have gone to town if Sri Lanka had hosted a games or any other sporting event of that magnitude with uniformed soldiers.

There were several Olympic venues with makeshift structures. Some spectator stands were completely on scaffolding– not even on solid iron structures! All these were covered with coloured cloth with the Games logo. Had a country such as Sri Lanka or India for that matter done this, the Western media would project it in a different way and connect it to poverty.

GB – a great fight back

Though Great Britain increased the 19 gold medals they won in Beijing 2008 to 29 at London 2012, it was far below their original goal of 40 gold medals. Nevertheless, it was a sigh of relief for the hosts after the early setbacks in cycling.

They may also think that their closing ceremony was a great success. But for the writer, who has covered five Olympic Games since 1992, it was a good musical show. True that the Spice Girls and other leading British artists added spice to the closing ceremony but it lacked the essential ingredients needed for a typical Olympic Games closing ceremony.

It is not only the music that one would expect from either an opening or closing ceremony of the Olympic Games but a rich blend of the arts, culture and heritage of the host nation. One wonders whether the London 2012 was anywhere near that, except for making a desperate attempt to depict a heritage which is only a few centuries old.

Beijing takes top billing

In contrast, Beijing 2008 was a perfect mixture, both in performance by the host nation China as well as their superior organisation skills. Every item of the Beijing 2008 opening and closing ceremonies were carefully crafted to dish out a memorable experience and that would easily rate them to be proud hosts of the most successful Games ever.

Prior to that, it was Barcelona, Spain which held the distinction of hosting the most successful Games. That is purely because it was the home town of the then IOC President Juan Antonio Samaranch, who diverted all resources for the event. In addition, he often used his good office towards the success of the Barcelona Olympic Games in 1992.

It was nice to be a part of the Olympic family once more, covering my fifth Olympic Games after Barcelona 1992, Sydney 2000, Athens 2004 and Beijing 2008.

Though the writer was fortunate enough to see Susanthika Jayasinghe making a blistering run in Sydney 2000 Games to give Sri Lanka its first Olympic medal in 52 years, one wonders how long we have to keep our fingers crossed to see another Lankan Olympic medallist to emulate the feats of Jayasinghe and Duncan White.