Friday, Aug 09, 2002
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Athletics
By K.P. Mohan
Things could have been better, in athletic terms, as this island nation, enjoying its peace after years of ethnic strife, gets ready to host its biggest sporting event yet for the next four days at the Sugathadasa Stadium here. Not unexpectedly, the loose ends showed up quite disturbingly for those itinerant scribes who have made it here, and rather embarrassingly for the host at the official pre-meet press conference today as the Board of Investment (BOI) of Sri Lanka explained in great detail everything bar the athletics part. The Asian Amateur Athletic Association (AAAA), of which Mr. Suresh Kalmadi is the President, was conspicuous by its absence at the press meet and so, too, the local athletic federation officials. With the opening ceremony scheduled for the latter part of the evening and the events scheduled to commence on the morrow, the explanation from the MC that queries, purely athletic, could be addressed on a later occasion defied logic. The controversy over the Sri Lankan relay teams' selection, with a few of the leading names, including Damayanthi Darsha and Sriyani Kulawansa, boycotting the fresh trials, also defies logic. This was an occasion for the federation and athletes like Darsha and Kulawansa to work in unison towards projecting a lasting image of Sri Lankan athletics. Instead we have a controversy, in typical sub-continental fashion. Darsha had indicated that she was pulling out of the individual events because of a hamstring injury, but she could have been expected to run both the relays. Now, she will probably anchor just the longer relay squad, though there is no final word yet on the topic with the possibility of Sri Lanka's multiple Asian champion staying away completely. She, as well as Kulawansa, skipped the fresh sprint relay trials that they felt were totally unnecessary, and was ordered to be omitted. Suasanthika Jayasinghe, the biggest name in Sri Lankan athletics the past five years or so, however, made it to the trials and thus was included. She will of course attempt the sprint double. Darsha's absence from the 200m and 400m, not to speak of the shorter relay, robs the championships of some of the glamour and class. She is after all, the defending champion in both the events, having also won the double at the last Asian Games. The 400m in any case had lost much of its sheen when the Indian federation decided that K.M. Beenamol should be `preserved' for the Asian Games, though she figures in the entry lists here. The Indian record holder had scored over the Sri Lankan in one of the three Asian Grand Prix meets this season. If the women's 400 metres is going to lack in class and competitiveness the men's quarter-mile should be worth waiting for. There is an abundance of talent here, beginning with the man who has the best credentials this season, Fawzi Dahesh Al-Shammari. The 23-year-old Kuwaiti clocked a fabulous 44.93, a National record, in winning the Doha Grand Prix in May and later in the same month swept the Asian Grand Prix titles. Saudi Arabian, Hamdan O. Al-Bishi, a former World junior champion and a finalist at the Edmonton World championships last year, should be itching for the showdown with Al-Shammari, having been beaten in Doha and in Kuwait earlier during the West Asian Games. Then there is the Sugath Tillakeratne factor. The 29-year-old, who shocked Qatari Ibrahim Ismail and the rest of Asia at the Fukuoka championship in 1998 by clocking a 44.61 to win the gold, might seemingly be past his prime. But, at home, he just might put in that little extra on the home straight in response to the expected ovation from the fans. Posters of Susanthika, Darsha and Tillakeratne are plastered all over the city as though to remind everyone who the Sri Lankan heroines and heroes are. Al-Shammari and Al-Bishi should be ready, though. This is going to be a real cracker.
Depleted field
The men's sprints might not have the best of Asia, with Japan not fielding Nobuharu Asahara or Shingo Suetsugu, the top two in the region this season. That should be the case with the distance events as well, with Japanese Toshinari Takaoka not there and Qatari Mohamed Suleiman having retired. For the first time since 1989, Suleiman will be missed as a competitor. He has an enviable winning streak in the 1500m and an array of records over all sorts of distances. A younger Suleiman, Abdulrahman should, however, be expected to make his mark in the 800m where he won the silver at the recent World junior championships in Kingston. Qatar seems to produce these talented middle and long distance runners by the dozen. Among those not-so-young, in fact a veteran, among the Qatari ranks would be Ahmed Ibrahim Warsama who is expected to compete in the 10,000m. This is another event that could produce an interesting battle since Saudi Arabian Alayan Sultan Al-Qahtani is staging a comeback after three years. On some sort of a comeback trail would be another Saudi Arabian, Saad Shaddad Al-Asmari, the acknowledged steeplechaser who is billed to compete in the 5000m also. In fact, Qatari Khamis Sief Abdullah, who will be defending the steeplechase title, is also expected to try his hand at the 5000m. Both races, if these two are in the line-up, could produce classic battles. Moving away from the West Asians, the focus should be on the top Japanese, including World championship silver medallist hammer thrower Koji Murofushi, and some young Chinese, including the 19-year-old decathlete Qi Haifeng who reached a phenomenal 8030 points this season during the National championships in Benxi in June. Murofushi surprisingly does not have an Asian title to show though he has been around for some time now. Andrey Abduvaliyev who shifted from Tajikistan to Uzbekistan but is no longer in the news, had won it in Fukuoka ahead of the Japanese while Murofushi did not compete last time in Jakarta. Murofushi has come a long way since then, producing a superb performance at the last World championships and yet failing to win the gold against Olympic champion Szymon Ziolkowski of Poland. But then there is no one at the moment in Asia who can come close to this Japanese giant. Murofushi leads this season's Asian charts with 83.33 while his continental record stands at 83.47. China, always the powerhouse in women's events will lose ground this time with no one being entered in flat races upwards of 200 metres. Even in throws, another Chinese monopoly, the Asian leader has not bothered to enter the full compliment of two athletes in each event. But the presence of decathlete Qi Haifeng, the leader in Asia last year as well as in current standings, and a promising high hurdler in Liu Xiang, who ran an Asian record of 13.12s in Lausanne on July 2, should bring out the best from their rivals.
Tough task for Bobby
As for India, the second-string team has a few experienced customers including high jumper Bobby Aloysius who will be hard put to defend her title in the company of two Japanese toppers, Yoko Ota and Miki Imai and the Kazaks Marina Korzhova and Svetlana Zalevskaya, all better-rated jumpers than the Indian. Bobby was inconsolable after the event at the Manchester Commonwealth Games where she felt she "allowed the bronze to slip away'' from her grasp after having jumped her second best height of 1.87 metres and tied with Canadian Nicole Forrester. The Canadian won the bronze on a countback. Incidentally, Bobby Aloysius is the only Indian athlete who had expressed her desire to be considered for all the three major international meets this season. The others have either opted out or were forced to sit out by the federation which, going by the advice of the experts, felt that the seven-week period from now to the Busan Games would be insufficient for the athletes to reach a second `peak'. Somehow, China also seems to have followed the same reasoning in keeping their best away from here in preparations for the Asian Games. Maybe the others are yet in the dark about the logic behind the Chinese and Indian line of thinking. Just maybe.
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