Jayasundara anchors Sri Lanka to men's 4 x 400m bronze

Dinesh Weerawansa reporting from Qatar

ASIAN GAMES: Sri Lanka's decision to take Asoka Jayasundara out of his pet event of 400m hurdles and give him the anchor lap of men's 4 x 400m relay proved right as they bagged the bronze medal in the final event of the day on the last day of the track and field competition of the 15th Asian Games at Khalifa Stadium here on Tuesday night.

Instead of their 'traditional' strategy of running either Rohan Pradeep Kumara, Prasanna Amarasekera or Sugath Tillakaratne over the past years, Sri Lanka took the gamble and opted for hurdles specialist Jayasundara to do the anchor lap. That decision proved right as Jayasundara accelerated to go pass his Japanese opponent to secure the third place.

Running in lane 5, Sri Lanka started off with experienced Rohan Pradeep Kuamra who did the first lap. Rohitha Pushpakumara did well to maintain the advantage his predecessor got and was placed third behind Saudi Arabia and India when he handed over the baton to soldier Prasanna Amarasekera.

But Amarasekera had to face a stiff competition from the Japanese rival as Sri Lanka slumped to the fourth place when Jayasundara started the final lap. But Jayasundara lived up to expectations and did well to go pass his Japanese opponent Kenji Nirisako in the last 200m. It was at the final bend that Jayasundara peaked to take Sri Lanka to its third medal at Doha Games.

Sri Lanka returned a timing of three minutes and 06.97 seconds to take the third place. Led by Hamdan Al Bishi, Saudi Arabia took the gold medal with a season's best 3:05.31 while India took the silver in 3:06.65. Incidentally, Sri Lanka bagged the men's 4 x 400m relay bronze medal at the last Asian Games in Busan, 2002.

A slight mishap in the baton change at the start of the penultimate lap proved to be costly a exercise as Sri Lanka had to be satisfied with the fifth place in the women's 4 x 100m relay on the final day of the track and field competition at the Khalifa Stadium here on Tuesday night.

Sri Lanka, on lane six, started off well with Geethani Pathma Kumari doing the first lap. But Sujani Buddhika, doing the third lap, started off a little too early, making D.D. Premila Priyadharshani, doing the second lap, to run a couple of more yards to hand over the baton. True that Buddhika was within her baton changing range, but her early action made already tired Priyadharshani to 'run that extra mile'.

Hence, Susanthika Jayasinghe, the double medallist at Doha Games, had virtually no chance in catching up, but to finish fifth in 46.03 seconds. Chinese women clocked a season's best 44.33 seconds to secure the fold, ahead of Japan (44.87) and Taiwan (45.86), which won the silver and bronze respectively.

Thailand established a new national record timing of 39.21 seconds to secure the gold medal in men's 4 x 100m. Japan was separated in a photo finish for the silver in 39.21 while China (39.62) won the bronze. Taiwan (39.99) cane fourth to finish ahead of Sri Lanka.

A blistering last leg by India's Manjit Kaur helped her country win the women's 4x400m relay with Kazakhstan second and China getting bronze. Kaur was trailing as she picked up the baton from Chitra Kulathummuriyil but she got ahead of China's Li Xueji and stayed in front on the final lap, increasing her lead in the home straight to win in a combined time of 3:32.95.

Somehow Li of China was pipped on the line for silver by Kazakh Olga Tereshkova who also put in a tremendous final circuit. Early on Kazakhstan looked like possible winners as they led at the first baton change, and as the athletes broke from their lanes along the back straight of the second lap. But a disappointing leg by Viktoriya Yalovtseva saw her passed first by the Chinese and then by India's Pinki Paramanik.

Sati Geetha ran the opening leg for the victorious Indian team who were down in third after the opening 400m.

Olympic champion Xiang Liu underlined his supremacy in the hurdle business to second the gold medal in Doha Games too. He clocked 13.15 seconds to win men's 110m hurdles final, ahead of compatriot Dongpeng Shi who clocked a personal best 13.28 to win the silver medal.

China continued to consolidate their position in the overall medal standings with another gold medal, which saw them going pass the 130-gold mark. Shuying Gao cleared 4.30m in her first attempt to secure the gold in women's pole vault. Malaysian Samsu Roslinda too cleared the same height, but only in her third attempt, to secure the silver medal.

Bahrain had another success in athletics on the final day. Their leading middle distance runner Maryam Yusuf Jamal clocked four minutes, 08.63 seconds to win the women's 1,500m gold. Sri Lanka's Kingsley Gunatillake cleared 64.94m to secure the 13th place in men's javelin throw final. Korean Jae-Myoung Park had a superb 79.30m to take the gold, ahead of Japanese Yuifumi Marakami (78.15).

South Asian champion Chaminda Sampath Weerasinghe was placed 12th in the men's triple jump with an unimpressive 15.50m China's Yanxi Li had a career best 17.06m to take the gold medal.

Doha, Tuesday