Susanthika dazzles to enter 200m semis

Clocks her best timing in seven years - 22.55 sec.:

Dinesh Weerawansa reporting from Japan

ATHLETICS: Dazzling Susanthika Jayasinghe twice clocked a season’s best timing of 22.55 seconds to storm into the semi-finals of women’s 200m event on day five of the 11th IAAF World Championship continued at the Nagai Stadium here in Osaka on Wednesday.

Running in the first women’s 200m quarter-final under lights before a packed stadium, the 31-year-old former Olympic gold medallist had a blistering final dash to finish second, behind American Sanya Richards.

The 2006 IAAF World Cup final champion in Athens, Richards clocked 22.31 seconds, which too was her personal best.

The rest of the six woman sprinters who ran in the quarter-final finished far behind the Lankan lass.

It looks as though Jayasinghe has regained her old touch as she had the identical timing of 22.55 seconds both in the morning’s first round heat and in the flood-lit quarter finals.

Incidentally, it was Jayasinghe’s best ever 200m outdoor timing in seven years, after her memorable 22.28 dash to win the bronze at the Sydney 2000 Olympic Games. Her best timing since then up to yesterday was her gold medal winning feat at last month’s Asian Championship in Jordan - 22.99.

“Many thought Susanthika Jayasinghe is now history and that she has nothing to offer anymore. But I have proved them wrong with this performance. I know I could do better and I am going to do that,” she said after her quarter-final.

She looked confident and cheerful and vowed to make it to the final of her pet event in which she has won Sri Lanka’s first Olympic medal in 52 years and the first and the only World Championship medal.

It was exactly ten years ago that Jayasinghe gave Sri Lanka a shock World Championship medal - a silver behind Zahanna Pintusevich in Athens, 1997. She is now getting ready to emulate that feat.

“It’s going to be a hot tussle. But I am pretty confident that I am going to make it to the final. That alone is a glory for my country as no other Lankan athlete has made even to the finals of a World Championship,” she said.

Jayasinghe did not get the best of the starts in her quarter-finals, though she had a relatively good first 100m in the first round heat. “I knew I had to accelerate after the bend and make sure I am behind Richards,” she added.

The presence of her American coach Tony Campbell - the man who guided her to the Olympic medal seven years ago, too has been a source of encouragement for the veteran Lankan sprint queen.

“Tony has been motivating her at the training venue. It’s a big psychological boost for her,” Sunil Jayaweera of the AASL said. Jamaican Veronica Campbell, the women’s 100m gold medallist, too clocked the identical timing of 22.55 seconds to win the third women’s 200m quarter final, ahead of American Torri Edwards (22.62). USA’s Allyson Felix was the easy winner in the second quarter-final as she clocked 22.61 seconds.

Campbell’s team mate - Aleen Bailey returned a timing of 22.60, her season’s best, to win the last of the four women’s 200m ‘quarters’.

Of the 16 woman sprinters who have qualified to run in tomorrow’s 200m ‘semis’, Jayasinghe and Campbell accounts for the second best timing of 22.55 behind Richards (22.31).

Earlier in the morning, Jayasinghe bettered her previous season’s best to finish second in the women’s 200m first round. Running in heat one, Jayasinghe clocked an impressive 22.55 seconds to finish slightly behind the winner - Allyson Felix of the USA, the defending champion who returned a timing of 22.51 seconds.

It looked like Jayasinghe had put aside her 100m false start debacle as she accelerated at the bend to reduce the lead of Allyson, who won the last World Championship gold with a 22.16 in Helsinki.

Allyson’s American team mate - LaShauntea Moore had a leisured 22.13 in winning the heat two, which was worked off against the wind. Debbie Ferguson of Bahamas finished second.

Tezzhen Naimova of Bulgaria (22.84 in heat 3), Sanya Richards of the USA (22.74 in heat 4), Muriel Hurtis-Housiri of France (22.83 in heat 5), and Veronica Campbell of Jamica (22.87 in heat 6) won their respective heats while American Torri Edwards was second to Campbell in the last heat.

The semi-finals of women’s 200m will be worked off under lights on Thursday at 10 pm (6.30 pm SL time) and the final on Friday at 9.15 (5.45 pm SL time).