By R. L. Fernando
Sri Lanka’s Sprint Queen Susanthika Jayasinghe who bagged two ‘golds’ at the recent 14th Asian Athletic Championships which concluded at the Sugathadasa Stadium on August 12 (Monday), proved without doubt that she was Asia’s Woman Speedbird.

The championships ended with Sri Lanka taking the third ‘gold’ in the final event — the Men’s 4x400 relay vide quartet Rohan Kumara, Ranga Wimalasena, Prasanna Amerasinghe and Sugath Tilekaratne.

Sri Lanka placed 6th

Sri Lanka finished sixth in the overall medals tally with 6 medals (3 golds, 1 silver and 2 bronze) behind champions China (20 medals — 10 golds 6 silver and 4 bronze). Qatar took second spot with 16 medals (8 golds, 2 silver and 6 bronze) while Kazakhastan was third with 12 medals (6 golds, 2 silver and 4 bronze).

Susie’s two ‘golds’

Susanthika’s first gold was in the 100 metres which she won easily in a timing of 11.29 seconds which was only a tenth of a second outside the Asian record.

However, Susanthika in her pet event the 200 metres emerged an effortless winner to equal her compatriot Damayanthi Darsha’s Asian record of 22.84 seconds set up in Jakarta, Indonesia two years ago.

She could have got yet another medal for her country either a bronze or silver as the anchor lap runner in the 4x100 relay. But, the baton changes by her team mates were horrible. Susanthika was the last to receive the baton, but made up sufficient ground in the closing stages at which time the race was all over.

Silver by Sriyani

The only ‘silver’ medal came through Sriyani Kulawansa who tried out to finish second in the women’s 100 metres hurdles.

Two bronze medals

Meanwhile, the two ‘bronze’ medals were by Sugath Tilekaratne who finished third in the 400 metres and the women’s quartet of Menaka Wickramasinghe, Lalani Gunawardena, Swarnamali Edirisinghe and Damayanthi Darsha which took third and last place in the 4x400 relay.

Prime Minister Ranil Wickremesinghe declared the Games open on August 8, while Power and Energy Minister Karu Jayasuriya was the chief guest at the closing ceremony on August 12 (Monday).

Congrats to Susie

President Chandrika Kumaratunga and Prime Minister Ranil Wickremesinghe had both congratulated Susanthika on her performance. The SLAAA had decided to offer her a cash award of Rs. 500,000 for being the country’s first ‘gold’ medallist at the championships. In the meantime, the Prime Minister on seeing her win the second ‘gold’ in the 200 metres over TV had made arrangements to welcome her to ‘Temple Trees’ for a meeting.