Seventeen years' dream shattered

Hangzhou, 02 October 2023 – A 17-year athletic dream came true for a dreamy minute for Sri Lanka until it was shattered right in front of their eyes at the 4x400m Mixed Relay at the Hangzhou Olympic Sports Centre Stadium today.

 

Sri Lankan team ran with a timing of 3mts. 14.25secs. and came in 2nd place at the stadium today but the official result released a disqualification of the team under the code TR17.3.1 (163.3(a)) – lane infringement. Unfortunately, when the first athlete passed the baton to the second athlete, the first athlete was in the wrong lane before and during the pass, which triggered this code.

 

Concurrently, Sarangi Silva competed in the Women’s Long Jump Final and came in 6th with a result of 6.14 (+0.2).

 

The silver lining for the day was when Young shuttler, Viren Nettasinghe stamped his authority in his first-ever Asian Games outing when he made short work of Gurung Anish of Bhutan at 21-6 and 21-14 just under 26 minutes at the Binjiang Gymnasium court three. His effort certainly must have helped him boost his world overall rank 81 with this win. After his win Viren just smiled and said “I am ready” and he must be known just what he meant by that. He is down to take an opponent from Mongolia and the time is yet to be decided.

 

Meanwhile, Archery for Team Sri Lanka had mixed results today at the Fuyang Yinhu Sports Centre Qualification Field. During Compound Individual 1/32 Elimination Rounds, Archer Anuradha Karunaratne won against Emirati Joumana Alnajjar with a score of 135 – 127 in the women’s category while Archer Sanjeewa Kumara won against Mongolian Jamiyangombo Purevdorj with a score of 139 - 137. However, Karunaratne lost against Indian Jyothi Surekha Vennam in the Compound Women’s Individual 1/16 Elimination round with a score of 132 – 145 and Kumara lost against Taipei Chinese Chang Cheng-Wei in the Compound Men’s Individual 1/16 Elimination round with a score of 128 - 148. Later, Archer Sajeev de Silva competed against Kazakhstani Dauletkeldi Zhangbyrbay in the Recurve Men’s Individual 1/32 Elimination round and lost with a score of 5-6.

 

The Hangzhou Olympic Sports Centre Squash Courts saw 2 close defeats for Team Sri Lanka today. Mixed doubles duo – Chanithma Sinaly and Shamil Wakeel, played against Filipino duo Jemyca Aribado and Robert Andrew Garcia in Pool B, and lost with a score of 1 – 2. Then, Ravindu Laksiri was defeated by Malaysian Muhammad Addeen Idrakie Bin Bahtiar after battling for 58 long minutes with a score of 1 – 3 in the Men’s Individual Round of 16.