|
|
 |
 |
 |
| Saturday, 28 August 2004 |
 |
|
 |
Sports | |
| News Business Features Editorial Security Politics World Letters Sports Obituaries
|
Lanka's last hope Cooray runs tomorrow Dinesh Weerawansa reporting from Greece ATHENS, Friday - Sri Lanka's last hope at the Athens Olympics, Anuradha Indrajith Cooray will be seen in action on the final day of the 202-national Games here on Sunday. He will be among the 113 competitors taking part in the men's marathon to be worked off along a historic route. Cooray looked relaxed as he completed a long morning work out today under the watchful eyes of his coach Lakshman de Alwis, who is also Sri Lanka's national athletic coach. De Alwis predicted Cooray to finish within the first 15, or to do even better if the climatic conditions look favourable. "He has been making a lot of effort since arriving here. We mostly had two training sessions per day, one in the morning and other in the evening. Physically, he looks strong and mentally, he is determined to do well. I feel the lad should do his best here," Alwis said. The Lankan coach said they inspected the marathon route with the runner a few days ago. Cooray, the winner of many International marathon races in Singapore, said he is going to make the best use of the opportunity he got to compete at Olympics. "This is a good experience. I am going to make the maximum use of it. I will give of my best and try to secure a good place. There would be tremendous amount of competition but that would make us feel even more determined," he said. The Greeks feel proud that they will be able to run men's marathon in the very same route that of the 1896 first modern Olympics marathon. It will start near Rafina and would end at Panathinaiko Stadium, some 24km off the Olympic Village and 9km off the main Olympic Stadium. The men's marathon would commence at 6 p.m. (9 p.m. Sri Lanka time) on Sunday. Unlike in the recent Olympics where the men's marathon traditionally ends at the main stadium during the closing ceremony, men's marathon here takes the ancient route it had some 108 years ago. The Panathinaiko Stadium, which hosted archery events of the current Games, had been the main venue for the first ever modern Olympic Games. It had been founded in 330 BC and reconstructed in 1896. Meanwhile, the eighth day of the athletic competition at the Olympic Stadium had all the excitement to keep the capacity crowd. The Americans continued to underline their track supremacy, this time in men's 200m final with a clean sweep. Shawn Crawford took the men's 200m gold, days after he barely missed a medal in men's 100m. He clocked an impressive 19.79 seconds and had a clear lead over compatriots Bernard Williams (silver in 20.01) and Justin Gatlin (bronze in 20.03), the gold medallist in men's 100m. The trio were off their blocks in a flash and powered their way to finish line, like three American warplanes flying to an enemy target. Both Crawford and Williams registered their personal best timings, at the tight time and at right place. The start of the race was delayed for ten minutes due to boisterous behaviour of Greek spectators. They were angry that their 200m hero Kostas Kederis had been withdrawn from the Games (after a controversial motorcycle accident hours before a scheduled dope test). They chanted his name and booed when the American sprinters were shown on the giant electronic screen at the stadium. Repeated requested to be quiet for the start were also ignored. When the athletes finally went under the starter's orders, veteran Namibian sprinter Frankie Fredericks was disturbed by the crowds and was unable to concentrate. He then got up and made praying signs, begging the crowd for silence. The second attempt resulted in a false start by Stephane Buckland (MRI). Fredericks was the fastest in action when the race got off finally but the Namibian could only maintain the pace until the bend, where he was overpowered by the three American speed merchants. The race reached its top gear with 80m to go for the finish as Crawford fired all his cylinders to break off, leaving Williams and Gatlin battle for the silver. Fredericks took the fourth place with a season's best 20.14. The new men's 200m Olympic champion said they were informed by their American coach beforehand to expect some reaction from Greek crowds who would miss their home star Kederis. "Our coach said something like this would happen and we were prepared to take it. We stayed focused and did not pay any attention to the crowd. Finally we beat all odds and won," he said. Dominican Republic's Felix Sanchez ran a season's best 47.63 seconds to take home men's 400m hurdles gold medal. He was never challenged in the final in which he was the only hurdler to go under 48 seconds. Jamaican Danny McFarlane won the battle for the silver medal in 48.11 seconds while Naman Keita of France settled for the bronze in 48.26. |
|
News | Business | Features
| Editorial | Security
Produced by Lake House |
