Sarangi reaches long jump final in Birmingham

By Susil Premalal reporting from Birmingham

Sri Lanka’s Sarangi Silva produced a pleasing performance to reach the final round of the Women’s long jump event at the 22nd Commonwealth Games track and field events, continued at the Alexander Stadium in Birmingham, England on Friday.

The 25-year-old versatile athlete finished in sixth place in Group ‘B’ to advance with a jump of 6.42m.

Deborah Acquah from Ghana led the group with an effort of 6.85m and the others to qualify from Group B were Ese Brume (Nigeria), Jazmin Sawyers (England), Filippa Fotopoulou (Cyprus) and Abigail Irozuru (England).

Earlier, Sri Lankan middle distance runner Gayanthika Abeyratna failed in her effort to advance in the Women’s 1,500m event after she finished seventh in Heat two.

The Sri Lanka record holder of the 1,500m event returned a time of 4:16.97 seconds slightly ahead of Rwanda’s Claire Uwitonze, who finished last with a time 4:24.7 secs.

Winnie Nanyondo of Uganda won this heat with a time of 4:16.4 secs followed by Katie Snowden (4:16.9 secs) of England and Winny Chebet (4:16.11s) of Kenya.

Abeyratna however, created history as the first Sri Lankan to compete in the 1,500m event at a Commonwealth Games.

The Sri Lankan contingent suffered more humiliation when another athlete went missing, after a judoka, judo official and a wrestler disappeared earlier this week.

The missing Sri Lankan athlete is reportedly a boxing competitor, who has disappeared even without his passport.

The Sri Lankan Team Management acquired all passports of the athletes and officials to avoid any disappearances following the first incident.      

An official of the Birmingham Metropolitan Police had told the Sri Lankan Team Management that necessary action would be taken after the Visa expires in six months’ time.    

Meanwhile, Sri Lankan shuttlers had a successful day while winning all their matches in the 22nd Commonwealth Games Badminton Championships, continued in Birmingham, England.
Niluka Karunaratne and Dumindu Abeywickrama (Men’s Singles), along with the Doubles pair of Sachin Dias and Thilini Hendahewa (Mixed Doubles) and Buwanaka Goonethilleke and Sachin Dias (Men’s Doubles) completed straight set wins in their respective round of 32 encounters.

Karunaratne beat Michael Martin of Barbados 21-6, 21-5 while Abeywickrama beat Samuel Cassar of Malta 21-12, 22-20.

Meanwhile, Dias and Hendahewa defeated Ty Lindeman and Josephine Wu of Canada 21-11, 21-18 while Goonethilleke and Dias had the better of Martin and Kennie Maarten of Barbados 21-12, 21-9.

After two defeats, the Sri Lanka Men’s Beach Volleyball Team consisting of Malintha Yapa and Ashen Rashmitha finally got their act together well to beat Clair Hodge and Shawn Seabrookes of St. Kitts and Nevis 21-11, 21-11.

The Women’s pair of Deepika Bandara and Chathurika Weerasinghe received a walkover in their preliminary round Group ‘B’ tie against Suraya Chase and Phylecia Armstrong of Trinidad and Tobago.