Dervin defends decision to change 100m relay team

Sri Lanka Manager happy with overall performance:

Dinesh WEERAWANSA reporting from Qatar

ASIAN GAMES: Sri Lanka athletic chief, Dervin Perera defended his athletic team's decision to change the composition of the women's 4 x 100m relay team for the 15th Asian Games here, a move which was highly criticised by national coach Lakshman de Alwis.

He was also satisfied with the overall performance of the Sri Lanka team, adding that the prominent role played by his team saved Sri Lanka's reputation.

Veteran Sri Lanka coach De Alwis was of the view that their women's 4 x 100m relay team would have won the bronze medal if not for the eleventh hour selection blunders.

He criticised the decision to field Geethani Pathma Kumari at the expense of M. Chamali Dilrukshi Priyadharshani, who had finished second in the 100m relay team selection trials back home.

But Perera, the AASL President who is on tour as the Manager of the 40-member Sri Lanka athletic team for Doha Games here, said they had to take such a decision in the best interest of Sri Lanka athletics. "Chamali Priyadharshani was a weak link.

She could neither give nor take the baton properly. So how could we have her in the final team just because she had finished second in the trials.

It's not just doing a 100m sprint but baton change too plays a vital role in the relays," Perera said.

Perera also pointed out there would have been differences in the team if they had decided to retain Chamali Priyadharshani.

"If we had struck to the original team, there would have been problems. There too, the blame would come on us in case the elite athletes pull out or under perform. We took the best decision we could have taken at that time," the AASL President added.

He also pointed out that the baton change delay in the women's 4 x 100m relay between Sujani Buddhika and D.D. Premila Priyadharshani too contributed to the team's downfall.

"In any case, we would have sent Buddika on the first lap if we had Jani Chathurangani (currently undergoing an arbitration on a positive dope test result during the South Asian Games). Buddika and Jani had a good understanding in their baton change. We missed that advantage as well," Perera explained.

However, Sri Lanka athletic President cum team manager was happy with the overall performance of his team.

"I am happy with the performance of our athletes. It's our athletes who saved Sri Lanka from a total disaster at the Asian Games. Though a huge contingent from Sri Lanka came here to compete in 24 disciplines, it's athletes who won all three medals for Sri Lanka. Credit should go to Susanthika Jayasinghe and our men's 400m relay team for saving Sri Lanka," he said.

The AASL President said they would have commenced preparations for Doha Asian Games much earlier if they had known that they could field such a big team. "The earlier plan was only to take the South Asian Games gold medallists to Doha.

But the NOC later told us both the gold and silver medallists of the SA Games could make the tour. There was not much time for them to practice after that decision," he added.

Perera said the AASL would evaluate the performance of Sri Lanka athletes before planning out a strategy for future tours. "We would analyse the performance of each and every athlete so that we could exactly know where they have gone wrong, whether they have progressed or not," he concluded.

China ends with a magical 165th gold medal

Asian sporting heavyweights China underlined their supremacy with their 165th gold medal at the 15th Asian Games which concluded in Doha today.

China warmed up for the 2008 Olympic Games as the hosts with a rich haul of 316 medals - 165 gold, 88 silver and 63 bronze medals.

China won the men's basketball final as their surgical approach left the hosts Qatar always one step behind on the court.

The lads from Beijing led from the start and always had a cushion of more than three points to eventually run out 59-44 winners and reclaim the gold which they lost to Korea in Busan four years ago.

The bitter memory of their 102-100 overtime loss in 2002, which ended hopes of five gold medals in a row, has been partially erased after reclaiming the crown.

Qatar can wear their silver medals with immense pride, having vastly improved on the Gulf State's previous best Asian Games finish of ninth. If it had not been for Wang Zhizhi Qatar may have won gold in the lowest-scoring gold match in Asian Games history.

The seven-feet centre was head and shoulders above everyone else on the court. He scored nearly half of China's points and with 28 next to his name at the finish he was the man of the match, if not the tournament.

When Wang was not draining three-pointers the 27 year-old marshalled the Chinese defence like a military general. The sell out stadium full of noisy young Qatari fans did not get the grandstand finish it desired as the hosts, perhaps a little nervous, always struggled playing catch-up.

Qatar mounted a mini revival in the third quarter after they trailed 34-25 at half time. Daoud Mousa Daoud got three points and then two more to reduce arrears after the break to just 38-32. Daoud added another triple as Qatar briefly threatened a shock. He scored eight and was probably the men in maroon's best player.

However a few moments later, a three pointer by Li Nan kept the hosts at arm's length at 43-37. Man of the match Wang added four more points to China's total to make it 47-39 with just the final 10 minutes remaining.

Friday, DOHA