Sports
An American hurdling for Sri Lanka at Olympics
Waiting for the next Olympic hurdler – Part IV
by Reemus Fernando
In the year 2012, the US had more than dozen female athletes who had run the 400 metres hurdles faster than the IAAF qualifying standard (both ‘A’ and ‘B’) for the London Olympics. The ‘B’ grade qualifying standard was 56.65 seconds. While the countries like Sri Lanka were struggling to qualify athletes for Olympics, the US had a surplus. In fact, in hurdling, the whole of Asia had only three female athletes, the Japanese pair Satomi Kubokura (55.34) and Sayaka Aoki (56.62) and the Chinese Xiaoxiao Huang (56.58), who had run the discipline under the qualifying mark in 2011. By the end of July 2012, six others had managed to run under the ‘A’ and ‘B’ grade standards for Olympics from Asia. During the Olympic qualifying period, the fastest performance of Christine Merrill, born in Bakersfield, a city in Kern County, California was 56.83 seconds. Even achieving an ‘A’ grade qualifying standard does not guarantee a place in the US team for the Olympics. US athletes have to face a trial as there is an excess of qualified athletes to select from.
When more than dozen qualified US hurdlers who could not punch their ticket to the 2012 Olympics were watching the London Olympics on TV back in the US, Christine Merrill took the starters orders in the women’s 400 metres hurdles heats at the London Olympic Stadium. However, neither her name nor her country’s was announced before the race. When she completed the race, last in the fifth heat, she became the first female athlete to have represented Sri Lanka in the 400 metres hurdles at an Olympics. It was not that someone had illegally taken her to the Olympic Village. It all became possible because of her mother’s Sri Lankan origin.
With its massive TV viewer strength, the US has a huge influence when deciding disciplines of the Olympics. The women’s 400 metres hurdles made its debut when the US hosted the Games for the third time in Atlanta in 1984. Six editions after the women’s 400 metres hurdles made its debut Sri Lanka made its namesake first female representation in the 400 metres hurdles in London in 2012. It all became possible because Sri Lanka Athletics had started to look outside for formidable athletes of Sri Lankan origin to form teams for international events. Merrill also represented the country at the 2011 World Championships and also made herself available for championships held in Sri Lanka. A year after her Olympic representation she clocked 56.45 at a competition in the USA. It is the current Sri Lanka national record. Had she not made herself available for Sri Lankan representation by 2011, probably the country would have given its Olympic wildcard to a locally grown sprinter Chandrika Subashini who had clocked 52.52 seconds in the 400 metres flat event in 2011. Subashini was placed fourth at 2011 Asian Championship in Kobe. Later she was elevated to silver medal position after initial gold and silver medallists Kazakhstan’s Olga Tereshkova and Iraq’s Gulustan Ieso, were disqualified after testing positive for banned substances.
Not many have persevered in the 400 metres hurdles in the women’s category at the senior level. Lack of competition has produced sub-standard performances at the national level. Nimali Liyanarachchi who is representing Sri Lanka at the Tokyo Olympics once tried her luck in this discipline clocking 60.85 seconds. While the country’s national record in the women’s 400 metres is held by a US citizen, the country’s national championship record of that discipline is held by a British national, Selvagowry Retchakan. Selvagowry’s National Championship record of 57.5 secs (hand timing) is 30 years old now.
Selvagowry emerged as a future prospect for Sri Lanka from Chandikulam Balika. She represented Sri Lanka at the Asian Games in 1982. But she developed as a force to be reckoned in world athletics only after she moved to the UK. When she took part in the 1992 Barcelona Olympics, where she ran her lifetime best of 54.63 seconds over the 400 metres hurdles, she was representing the UK. She won two world level medals for the UK when she finished second in the 400 metres hurdles at the 1998 Kuala Lumpur Commonwealth Games and the1992 IAAF World Cup in Havana.
Georgia Wareham towered over the rest with an impressive all-round show to lead Gujarat Giants to an impressive opening match win over UP Warriorz.
Wareham’s unbeaten 10-ball 27 gave Giants the finishing kick they needed to nudge past 200, after a half-century from Ashleigh Gardner had laid the perfect platform. Then Wareham picked up the massive wickets of Meg Lanning and Harleen Deol to scupper Warriorz’s chase.
Phoebe Litchfield’s 40-ball 78 kept Warriorz in the hunt, but her dismissal proved decisive. Warriorz, however, managed to stem some net-run-rate damage courtesy a neat cameo from Asha Sobhana.
Sophie Devine briefly wrested the initiative in the powerplay, taking down Deepti Sharma in the fourth over, but a double-strike kept Giants in check. Beth Mooney was undone by a Sophie Ecclestone arm-ball in the fifth over, while Devine holed out to deep midwicket off Shikha Pandey for a 20-ball 38 in the sixth.
She exhibited this best when she danced down the track and got leg-side of the ball before lofting Ecclestone inside-out between cover and point for four. Gardner, initially measured, shifted gears decisively in the 13th over, carving Kranti Gaud for three boundaries.
She turned up the heat further, launching three sixes, off Asha and Ecclestone, across the 14th and 15th overs. Giants plundered 49 runs from overs 13 to 15, a burst that carried Gardner to her half-century off just 30 balls.Wareham walked in halfway through the 17th over, and had stamped her mark on the innings by the end of Giants’ innings. The highlight was her onslaught against Deandra Dottin, the former Giants allrounder, hitting for three sixes in the 19th over.
Wareham could have been dismissed on 13, though, had Gaud held on to a simple chance at cover point in the same over. Bharti Fulmali then showcased her hitting prowess, muscling Deepti for two sixes in the final over to take Giants past 200.
Warriorz lost Kiran Navgire in the first over, to Renuka Singh, but Litchfield looked in sparkling form from the outset. Her exhilarating strokeplay somewhat consigned Mrg Lanning to the background for much of their 70-run second-wicket stand before the floodgates opened, with Warriorz losing three wickets in four deliveries to go into a full-blown collapse.
At 74 for 4, Warriorz held back Dottin and promoted their lone retention, Shweta Sehrawat. And she made everyone go wow first ball, launching Renuka down the ground for six. If that was audacious, two consecutive sixes off Gardner in the following over were truly exhilarating.
Litchfield’s progress to her half-century in 29 balls was no less entertaining. She swept, reverse-swept, paddled, and moved across the stumps to mow length deliveries into the leg side.
Warriorz’s hopes rose through the course of a fifth-wicket stand of 69, but Litchfield’s dismissal, coming soon after that of Sehrawat who was bowled missing a slog-sweep off Rajeshwari Gayakwad, proved to be the clincher.
Asha’s cameo from there on merely reduced the margin of defeat.
Brief scores:
Gujarat Giants Women 207 for 4 in 20 overs (Beth Mooney 13, Sophia Devine 38, Ashleigh Gardner 65, Anushka Sharma 44, Georgia Wareham 27*, Bharati Fulmali 14*; Shikha Pandey 1-29, Deandra Dottin 1-47, Sophie Ecclestone 2-32) beat UP Warriorz Women 197 for 8 in 20 overs (Meg Lanning 30, Phoebe Litchfield 78, Shweta Sehrawat 25, Deandra Dottin 12, Sophie Ecclestone 11, Asha Sobhana 27*; Renuka Singh 2-25, Sophie Devine 2-55, Ashleigh Gardner 1-37, Georgia Wareham 2-30, Rajeshwari Gayakwad 1-07) by 10 runs
[Cricinfo]
After a nail-biter slipped through their hands in the last over of the opening night of WPL 2026, defending champions Mumbai Indians bounced back with style and thrashed three-time table-toppers Delhi Capitals with bruising half-centuries from their experienced duo of Nat Sciver-Brunt and Harmanpreet Kaur, and a three-for from their fresh recruit Nicola Carey, Chasing an imposing 196, DC slipped to 33 for 4 in the sixth over and hardly ever looked like bouncing back, eventually falling short by 50 runs.
As is often the case for MI, the heavy lifting with the bat was done by Sciver-Brunt and Harmanpreet, especially in the absence of the injured allrounder Hayley Matthews. After the boundary-laden half-century from Sciver-Brunt and some late sixes from Harmanpreet powered MI close to 200, Carey’s early seam movement knocked over the off stumps of Shafali Verma and Laura Wolvaardt, before also accounting for Marizanne Kapp. From 33 for 4, DC stuttered to 86 for 6 as Amelia Kerr also chipped in with an economical spell and three wickets that rolled over DC for 145.
For the second game in a row, MI’s openers failed: Kerr fell for a duck while Gunalan Kamalini struggled to 16 off 19. After a scratchy 4 off 15 on Friday night in the season opener, Kerr edged her first legal delivery – an outswinger from Chinelle Henry – behind, as Lizelle Lee completed a diving catch on her second attempt. Kamalini also handed a diving catch to Lee, soon after she smashed Nandani Sharma for consecutive fours down the ground, but the debutant’s riposte earned her a maiden WPL wicket with Kamalini’s thick outside edge.
Sciver-Brunt then led MI’s innings and looked in top form, smashing three fours in her first four balls to different corners of the ground. She collected another pair of consecutive fours, again going after Henry, and took MI to 43 for 1 in the powerplay. While Sciver-Brunt went about finding the boundaries against the spinners too for a 32-ball fifty, Harmanpreet took her time to reach 15 off 17 before taking off.
The Harmanpreet act started when she dispatched Henry for six over long-on. She followed it with her trademark loft over the covers for four, to take MI past 100 at the end of the 13th over. Sciver-Brunt then outfoxed Minnu Mani with late adjustments for three fours in the next over, which went for 14, and even though the England batter was soon caught for 70 at cover, MI were set for a strong finish on 127 for 3 after 15.
Harmanpreet was not going after the bowlers by herself, however. She found a hard-hitting partner in Carey, who reverse-pulled for one of her four fours during her 21 off 12. But it was Harmanpreet’s clean striking that left the new DC captain Jemimah Rodrigues sweating, as the experienced MI leader played with the field, especially in the last over off Shree Charani. She hit four back-to-back fours to help MI collect 53 runs in the last four overs.
With Meg Lanning – the WPL’s second-highest scorer – released before the auction, DC had big shoes to fill at the top of the order. It didn’t happen on Saturday, at least, as Lee fell for 10 on her WPL debut.
Shafali and Wolvaardt then saw their off stumps pegged back as Carey seamed the ball into them, in the space of three balls in the fifth over. When Rodrigues fell to a one-handed stunner from Kamalini behind the stumps off Shabnim Ismail, DC had lost four wickets in the powerplay for the first time in the WPL.
DC still had hope with depth in their line-up, but when Kapp was also sent back by Carey, DC needed a stiff 150 runs from 78 balls. Chinelle Henry’s hitting from No. 7 was the only silver lining for DC. Her penchant for boundaries belied DC’s score as she went after the inexperienced Triveni Vasishta – on WPL debut – and even the experienced Kerr. While she collected boundaries, wickets fell at the other end, and the asking rate climbed from over 12 after the halfway mark to nearly 20 by the time four overs were left.
Henry brought up her second WPL fifty in eight innings with a big six over long-on, but once she fell for 56 with the score 133, DC lasted just 11 more balls for 12 runs, before going down in their season opener.
Brief scores:
Mumbai Indians Women 195 for 4 in 20 overs (GunalanKamalini 16, Harmanpreet Kaur 74*, Nat Sciver-Brunt 70, Nicola Carey 21; Chinelle Henry 1-32, Shree Charani 1-45, Nandani Sharma 2-26) beat Delhi Capitals Women 145 in 19 overs (Lizelle Lee 10, Marizanne Kapp 10, Niki Prasad 12, Chinelle Henry 56, Sneh Rana 11, Shree Charani 10*; Shabnim Ismail 1-14, Nat Sciver Brunt 2-29, Amelia Kerr 3-24, Nicola Carey 3-37, Sanskriti Gupta 1-09) by 50 runs
[Cricinfo]
The upcoming T20 World Cup, featuring 20 teams across a frenetic three-week carnival, has whetted appetites among fans, players and administrators alike. Scratch beneath the surface and the contenders fall neatly into three baskets. There are the heavyweights; Australia, England and India, with South Africa firmly in that front rank. Then come the dark horses: Pakistan, New Zealand and Afghanistan, sides capable of blowing hot and cold but dangerous on their day. And finally, the also-rans, teams largely battle-hardened through the qualifying grind.
As co-hosts, Sri Lanka would like to believe they belong in the second bracket, coming into the tournament as dark horses rather than merely making up numbers. But form, that most unforgiving of judges, tells a harsher story. Six months out from the World Cup, the former champions have looked closer to the third category than the second. In an era where 200 has become par for the course in T20Is, Sri Lanka are struggling to bat out their 20 overs, a red flag if ever there was one. Their opening skirmish against Pakistan in the ongoing series did little to lift the mood or the belief.
The obvious question is: what have Pakistan done right that Sri Lanka haven’t?
No one expects Sri Lanka to suddenly roll out a production line of express quicks to rival Pakistan’s fearsome fast-bowling arsenal. That cupboard is well stocked in Pakistan and admired by all and sundry. But their batting depth and spin options have not materialised overnight. They are the dividends of continuity and clarity, commodities Sri Lanka have been short of.
Take Kamindu Mendis. Across formats, he has been a reliable all-rounder, even if he hasn’t always set the world on fire. Yet the evidence is there: his skill set is good enough to win you games. Once you identify such a player, you give him a long rope. You don’t pull the plug after a couple of low scores.
Then there is the curious case of Kusal Janith Perera. It is hard to fathom how a player deemed good enough for the squad struggles to crack the playing XI. KJP is a destructive batter, a high-risk, high-reward operator. His methods won’t always win him admirers, but impatience with a proven match-winner smacks of short-term thinking.
Continuity, after all, is the bedrock of a successful cricket team. There was little logic in stripping Charith Asalanka of the T20 captaincy. Now low on confidence, he risks sliding out of World Cup contention altogether.
Selectors have also dusted off an old playbook by turning again to Dhananjaya de Silva. Before and during the last World Cup, he was tasked with batting through the innings to arrest collapses. The experiment failed and he was axed. Now, on the eve of another World Cup, he is back in the saddle. It feels less like strategy and more like musical chairs.
The other burning issue is the gaping hole in the lower order. Too many bowlers are passengers with the bat, leaving the tail exposed. Dunith Wellalage offers a partial solution, yet he has failed to cement his place. Yes, his bowling can be a weak link, but if he was identified as a future star, the onus was on the management to back him, build his confidence and tell him he belongs in the big league.
With the World Cup at home and conditions tailor-made for spin, an operator like Wellalage should have been banked on long ago.
Rex Clementine
in Dambulla ✍️
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