By Hishan Welmilla

THE 16th Asian Athletc Championship (AAC) completed at the Munhak stadium, South Korea during the last weekend placing Sri Lanka in the sixth place in the medals tally. Sri Lanka fielded 31 athletes for the championship and compared to last time Sri Lanka’s performance in bringing back medals this achievement is commendable to a certain extent. Sri Lanka grabbed two-gold, two-silver and two-bronze medals.

High Jumper Manjula Kumara and Asian triple medallist Damayanthi Dahrsha (women’s 200m) were responsible in winning two golds, while Prasanna Amarasekera(men’s 400m) and 4x400 men’s relay team won the two silver medals. Rohan Pradeep Kumara (men’s 400m) and Anne Maheshi (women’s Javelin throw) gave Sri Lanka’s two bronze medals.

In the last Asian Athletics Championships held in Manila, Philippines (from September 20-23 in 2003) Sri Lanka only managed to bring back a gold, silver and bronze. Rohan Pradeep Kumara, Ranga Wimalawansa, Prassana Amerasekera and Sugath Tillekeratne were responsible in winning Sri Lanka’s only gold in the men’s 4x400 relay with a time of 3:03:05.

Suheewa Nilmini Jayasena who represented Sri Lanka in the women’s 10000m won the silver medal with a time of 34:46:99. Anne Maheshe De Silva clinched Sri Lanka’s only bronze medal in the women’s javelin throw by throwing 50.18 m.

When compared to last time one would say Sri Lanka has done well in this year’s championship by doubling the medals that they won in their last outing. This statement can be justified only with the number of medals Sri Lankan athletes have won. But the other real factor is the performances of our athletes in these two championships should be given more emphasis when evaluating the entire success of our athletes.

When it comes to comparison in performance the only improvement we can clearly identify is the performances of Anne Maheshi who competed in the women’s javelin throw and Manjula Kumara Wijesekera who represented the men’s high Jump event.. Anne Mahesha threw a distance of 50.18 in Manila in 2003 and her distance, which enable her to retain the bronze medal this year, was 54.86m. On the other hand Manjula Kumara placed in the eleventh position at the last championship where he jumped 2.10m had shown a clear improvement when he repeated his personal best 2.27m to get the gold medal.

Although Dharsha retained her 200m gold medal for another year in the AAC it seems that her performances also had come down. She ran her personal best timing (22.48 seconds) in the women’s 200m seven years ago and also erased the Asian Championship record by clocking 22.84 seconds in Jakarta in the year 2000. Dharsha won her heat with a time of 23.66 seconds in this year’s championship and clocked 23.21 seconds to win the gold.

The performances of Prasanna Amarasekera and Rohan Pradeep also seem to be in a declining level. Prasanna who beat his compatriot Rohan to win the silver medal in the men’s 400m clocked 46.48 which was far away from his personal best 45.05 seconds and also Rohan’s timing of 46.52 seconds was not up to his personal best.

On the other hand Sri Lanka couldn’t retain the men’s 4x400m medal, which was another gold medal prospect from Sri Lanka’s point of view. Lankan’s clocked 3 minutes 04.12 seconds to get the silver. The gold went to Japan, which clocked 3 minutes 03.51 seconds. If Sri Lanka had managed to repeat their last time performance (3:03:05.) that would have given the Lankan’s what they expected in the finals.

But when comparing new comers Sri Lanka had a chance of identifying several potential athletes who could be groomed to give better results in the future.

Long distance runners Chaminda Indika and Sunil Jayaweera (1500m) are two promising athletes could look in to. Both competed in the finals and were placed sixth and eighth respectively.

Nalin Priyantha who competed in the men’s high jump along with Manjula also has a chance of winning a medal for Sri Lanka in the future. He jumped 2.15m, which was a similar performance of Manjula Kumara in the last Asian Athletics Championships.

Three Sri Lankans go missing

Although the winning of medals brought glory to Sri Lankan athletes’ the disgrace that some of the athletes brought to our nation would be the dark side of the story. Three Sri Lankans decamped during the championship. Sprinter K. Suminda Mendis has who was to run for Sri Lanka in yesterday’s men’s 4 x 100m first round heats had left the hotel on the eve of his event. Another two athletes W V S Ravindra Kumara (4x100) and Indika Kumara De Silva (110 m hurdles) went missing at the end of the third day, which put Sri Lankan team officials authorities in to deep trouble. Sri Lankan officials blamed the security officers of the hotel but some athletes who did not want to identify themselves have said that the officials who should be blamed for the incident.

This is the third time in recent history that Sri Lankan athletes went on missing in search of green pastures. A few Sri Lankan sportsmen went missing during the 2002 Asian Games in Korea and also during the Asian Games in Japan in the year 1994.The sports ministry compelled athletes to sign a Rs. 1 million bond to prevent athletes decamping during the championships.

India’s rise

The most notable performance in the championship belonged to India. India who failed to win a single medal at the last championship in Manila grabbed 4 gold, five silver and four bronze to be placed fourth in the final medals tally ahead of Sri Lanka.. This would be another area where Sri Lankan authorities should look in to. Because the real threat at the SAG 2006 will be coming from India if Sri Lanaka’s quest is to win more gold medals

China dominated the medals table with 15 gold, 7 silver and 10 bronze. Japan who had just one gold in the last championship improved on its medal; tally with 6 gold medals to be placed second. They also grabbed 5 silver and 12 bronze. Qatar was placed third with 6 gold, 3 silver and 3 bronze.

New Asian and championship records

Iran’s Ehsan Hadadi established a new Asian and championship record for the men’s discuss throw on the first day of the Championship. Hadadi threw a distance of 65.25 m to over come China’s Shaojie Li’s Asian record. Li established this record in 1996. The Championship record for the event belongs to Qatar’s Rashid Shafi Al-Dosari who threw a distance of 64.43m at the Colombo Asian athletic championship in 2002.

Japan’s Miho Sugimori established a new championship record in women’s 1500m event. She clocked 4 minutes 12:69 seconds to erase the previous record. A Chinese athlete who participated in the men’s 110 hurdles finals also set a championship record. Xiang Liu who won the gold medal finished the race with a time of 13.30 seconds.

Another championship record was broken on the third day as Aimin Song of China threw a distance of 65.15m in the women’s discus throw finals. Mjeed Saeed of Qatar established a new championship record in the men’s 800m by finishing the finals in 1 minute 44:27 seconds. Xiaixiao Huang of China broke the championship record in the women’s 400m hurdles with a finishing time of 55:63 seconds. India’s women’s relay team also established a new meet record by finishing in the 4x400 relay in 3-minute 30:93 seconds.

Nearly 1000 athletes from 43 countries will be in action in this four-day competition in 43 sports events (22 for males and 21 for females). Sri Lanka fielded 31 male and female athletes for this event, and Monday will be the final day of the 16th Asian Athletics Championships.