Sports - Mayumi gives Lanka first gold medal

15 year old Mayumi Raheem had the honour of giving Sri Lanka the first ever gold medal on the opening day of the 10th South Asian Games when she won the Women’s 100 metre Backstroke event. She also created a new meet record of 1.15.84 in third final of the swimming events held at the Sugathadasa Indoor Stadium swimming pool yesterday. She also went on to win a silver medal in the 50 metre freestyle event which was won by an Indian Lekha Kamath.

Sri Lanka went on to win another gold medal which was in the weightlifting event. This came from Commonwealth Games gold medalist Chinthana Vidanage. Vidanage did a lift of 267.

Young Raheem speaking to the media said that she was surprised and happy to have got the first gold medal for her country. She said that she never expected to follow it up with a silver medal.

“From now onwards, I will try my very best to win more medals as I have eight more events to participate in the coming days,” said a beaming Mayumi. Vidanage who won a gold medal at the previous edition held at Islamabad in 2004 said: “I was confident of winning the gold medal but I was aiming to break the record. However I don’t regret not having achieved that. I tried my best to break the snatch record of 122 and the second of 160 held by a Pakistani and a Indian respectively at Kathmandu in 1999. But I am satisfied with my effort as I was able to win a gold medal”.

The Sri Lankans did not have much success in other events held during the day at various venues. In rowing events held at the Bolgoda Lake the Indians made a clean sweep by winning all four gold medals with Sri Lanka being able to get only bronze medals.

The badminton events held at the Sugathadasa Indoor Stadium saw the Sri Lanka men and women reach the semi final after receiving a bye along with India. They will now meet Pakistan (who beat Bangladesh 4-1) in both the men and women's category due to be played at 9.00 a.m. today. The other two semi finals of both categories will be between India and Nepal who outclassed Maldives 5-0.

In the squash tournament held at the Gymkhana Club, the Sri Lanka players failed to impress as Naveen Jayawardena and Saman Tilekeratne bowed out losing to two Pakistani players.

There was some hope in the women's category as Nirasha Guruge and Tehani Guruge kept the Lankan flag flying and is assured of a bronze as the duo qualified to the semi finals.The boxing championship which got underway at the Sugathadasa Indoor Stadium saw Sri Lanka's Manju Wanniarachchi going down to Indian boxer Akhil Kumar who is a Commonwealth Games and Asian Games gold medalist in a close fight of the Bantamweight Under 54kg quarterfinal. He is out of contention now. But in an earlier bout T.M. Chaminda Tennekoon outfoxed his opponent from Afghanistan in the Light Flyweight Under 48kgs. This was followed by another Sri Lankan victory in the Bantamweight Under 54kg where W.R.G.G. Weligalle too defeated an Afghanistan boxer to enter the semi finals. In the football matches played in the evening India beat Bangladesh 2-1 to advance to the semi finals while Sri Lanka was beaten by Pakistan 1-0 in the second game of the day. With no score at the end of first half the winners got their goal in almost the dying stages of the match. The match between Pakistan and Maldives will decide the fate of Sri Lanka's progress.