The Hindu : Sport : Susanthika has it easy in 200 metres

Online edition of India's National Newspaper
Sunday, Apr 04, 2004

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Sport - Sports : General

Susanthika has it easy in 200 metres

By Kamesh Srinivasan

India's Seema Antil who set a new Games record to claim the gold in the women's discus event. — Photos: V. Sudershan

ISLAMABAD, APRIL 3. Susanthika Jayasinghe, the star attraction of the ninth SAF Games, had more trouble tackling an upset stomach than beating the wafer-thin challenge in the 200-metre event at the Jinnah Stadium here on Saturday.

On a day when the Indian athletes, led by Madhuri Singh in the 800 metres, accounted for four gold, three silver and three bronze medals, the Olympic bronze medallist Susanthika provided a strong thrust to Sri Lankan hunt for the medals.

"I can't run fast now. This is my endurance training time. It is a big year for me, as everyone is looking at the Olympics. Sri Lanka wants an Olympic gold medal from me, not the SAF Games gold,'' said Susanthika, quite relaxed after her race, in which she clocked 23.49 seconds.

Though she would also be competing in the 100 metres here and the relay, Susanthika talked about the possibility of trying the 400 metres some time later in the season.

"People had been blaming that I had been running only in the big events. That is why I have come for the SAF Games. Now, nobody can say that I don't run for the country in small events,'' said Susanthika with a smile.

For a star athlete, used to the best of conditions and comforts around the world, Susanthika was upset about the arrangements, and was whisked away for the dope test and the medal ceremony when she started talking about the inadequate supply of drinking water to the athletes among other things.

Susanthika may be too big and too strong for such a meet, but the programme fitted nicely for the second string Indian athletes, what with Madhuri Singh, Seema Antil, Hridayanand Singh and Amarjeet Singh capturing the gold medals.

Madhuri was herself surprised with her strong finish in the 800-metres, and said that she was not in her best fitness. "I didn't expect to finish this well, but I have always improved with every meet,'' said Madhuri, who beat Mangala Priyadarshani of Sri Lanka by 0.23 seconds, for a personal best timing of 2:07.61 in the 800 metres.

In the 200-metres, Piyush Kumar piped compatriot Vilas Neelgund by one hundredth of a second in stealing the bronze medal, while Rohan Pradeep of Sri Lanka cruised to the gold.

Ghamanda Ram made a strong attempt to catch Mohammad Sifrath of Sri Lanka but had to be content with the silver in the men's 800-metre event.

Amarjeet Singh won the triple jump with a new meet mark of 16.16, which incidentally was his first jump, in erasing the previous mark of 15.87 set by Sanjay Rai in 1999.

Seema Antil threw the discus to a gold winning distance of 57.03, on her third attempt, and was not much worried about fouling her next three throws as the rest failed to touch the 50-metre mark.

In the 400-metre hurdles, Prasad Reddy was running second but crashed into the eighth hurdle and fell in ending up last. Pakistan's Allah Ditta won the gold much to the jubilation of the home crowd that cheered him to its heart's content, a rare luxury for the host this evening.

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