Sports
Sri Lanka Athletics in talks with NOC to field women’s relay team for Asian Games
by Reemus Fernando
The record-breaking performance of the women’s 4×400 metres relay team at the recently held Asian Athletics Championship has forced Sri Lanka Athletics to make a fresh request to include the team for the upcoming Asian Games, despite the entries being closed.
Although the deadline for entries has expired and teams have been finalized for the multi-sports event, two slots in the track and field team have become vacant due to the absence of triple jumper Shreshan Danajaya and steeplechaser Nilani Ratnayake who were originally selected for the team. While Dananjaya decamped during an overseas competition, Ratnayake is serving a provisional suspension for a doping violation.
Sri Lanka Athletics was not planning to send a women’s relay team as the selectors were compelled to stick to tough selection criteria to fill the quota made available for track and field sports. With two of the relay team members, namely Nadeesha Ramanayake and Tharushi Karunaratne already in the team for individual events, Sri Lanka Athletics has now requested National Olympic Committee to negotiate with their Chinese counterparts to field the women’s relay team.
The Sri Lanka Women’s 4×400 metres relay team established a new national record in winning the Asian Athletics Championship silver medal on Sunday, just a day after the deadline for finalizing the teams for the Asian Games.
Apart from the athletes who featured at last week’s event, Italy-based sprinter Yupun Abeykoon, US-based high jumper Ushan Thivanka and sprinter Rumeshika Ratnayake are the other athletes making the Asian Games team for individual events.
Sri Lanka Athletics has requested the inclusion of South Asian Games medallist Dilshi Kumarasinghe and Asian Junior Championship medallist Jayeshi Uththara in the team for the Asian Games as their names were already in the ‘long list’ for the quadrennial event.
While Kumarasinghe was part of the team that broke the long-standing women’s 4×400 metres at the 2019 edition of the Asian Athletics Championships in Doha. Both Uththara and Kumarasinghe could not make the team for the Asian Athletics Championships after they placed third and fourth respectively at the trial. If the NOC succeeds in getting the opportunity for the relay team both Kumarasinghe and Uththara will be able to fight for their places.
Though the teams for the Asian Games are finalized, Sri Lanka Athletics has made the upcoming National Championships compulsory for the athletes selected for the Asian Games.
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IPL 2025: Chennai Super Kings suffer fifth loss on the trot as Kolkata Knight Riders register monster win
So that’s what happens when Kolkata Knight Riders (KKR) get the kind of pitch their spinners like. Sunil Narine, Varun Chakravarthy and Moeen Ali (12-1-55-6) went into Chepauk and burgled wickets away from the five-time IPL champions until they were a pale, weak shadow of themselves. Chennai Super Kings (CSK) crumbled to 103 for 9, their lowest IPL total at home, suffered a fifth successive defeat, which had never happened before in their entire history, and are marooned in ninth place on the points table. Welcome back to captaincy, MS Dhoni.
The major characteristic of a black-soil pitch is that it is slow and it grips. It felt like home, which is ironic because home hasn’t felt like home for them this season. KKR would prefer to play most of their matches in conditions like this but their efforts to procure them at the Eden Gardens hasn’t gone well. Ajinkya Rahane doesn’t even want to talk about it now. He did, however, spearhead a phenomenal bowling performance. He brought Moeen into the XI and set him loose on CSK’s two left-hand openers. Devon Conway couldn’t overcome the handicap. The KKR offspinner pocketed a wicket maiden. In the next over, Rachin Ravindra was gone. CSK were bleeding by the end of the powerplay, their 31 for 2 only slightly better than the season low of 30 for 3 that they themselves had set, against Royal Challengers Bengaluru.
Exposing this CSK team’s middle order is the only thing their oppositions need to do to win against them. Rahul Tripathi was brought in as Ruturaj Gaikwad’s replacement but he couldn’t figure out whether he wanted to hit out or play through and that indecision was reflected in his final score – 16 off 22. Vijay Shankar could have been dismissed for a duck, or for 20, had KKR held onto their catches. Even with those two lives he couldn’t push on to make a big score. Shivam Dube walked out with CSK at 59 for 3. He had faced only 13 balls and that was still enough time for the score to slip to 75 for 8, at which point his team was in danger of recording their lowest total in IPL history.
For the 16th time in his IPL career, Narine bowled his four overs without conceding a boundary. No one, having got through their full quota, has done it more times. He also knocked off Tripathi, who didn’t know which way the ball would turn, and Ravindra Jadeja and MS Dhoni, who didn’t know which way the ball would spin. There was some doubt over the Dhonii lbw, though. UltraEdge showed what looked like faint murmurs as the ball passed the bat.
CSK were being smothered. They had to wait 63 balls between boundaries – only two teams have ever been that emphatically silenced in this tournament – and hit just three after the eighth over (one of them off a top edge). They had to bring in Deepak Hooda as Impact Player, accepting the risk of going in with a bowler short when they would have to defend this total. But even that gamble backfired. Hooda fell for a duck and one of their key players, Matheesha Pathirana, could not take part in the game.
Defending 103 is a thankless job because bowlers tend to go hard searching for wickets and in that process they leak runs. After under-performing in their batting powerplay, CSK underwhelmed with their bowling powerplay. KKR ransacked 71 runs in the first six overs. This game was no contest.
Brief scores:
Kolkata Knight Riders 107 for 2 in 10.1 overs (Sunil Narine 44, Quinton de Kock 23, Ajinkaya Rahane 20*, Rinku Singh 15*; Anshul Kamboj 1-19, Noor Ahmad 1-08) beat Chennai Super Kings 103 for 9 in 20 overs (Devon Conway 12, Rahul Tripathi 16, Vijay Shankar 29, Shivam Dube 31; Sunil Narine 3-13, Varun Chakravarthy 2-22, Harshit Rana 2-16, Moeen Ali 1-20, Vaibhav Arora 1-31) by eight wickets
[Cricinfo]
Egypt forward Mohamed Salah has signed a new two-year contract with Liverpool.
The 32-year-old’s previous deal was scheduled to run out in the summer and there had been doubts he would stay with the Reds following comments from him during the season and speculation linking him with a move to Saudi Arabia.
However, he is staying and will have the chance to add to his 243 goals and 109 assists for the club in 393 appearances.
“Of course I’m very excited – we have a great team now,” said Salah.
“Before also we had a great team. But I signed because I think we have a chance to win other trophies and enjoy my football.
“I have played eight years here, hopefully it’s going to be 10. I’m enjoying my life here, enjoying my football. I have had the best years of my career here.”
Salah has scored 32 goals in all competitions this season, including 27 in the Premier League as the Reds chase a 20th top-flight title. Liverpool are 11 points clear of second-placed Arsenal with seven games remaining.
Salah, who joined Liverpool from Roma in 2017, has won the Champions League, Premier League, FA Cup, League Cup and Fifa Club World Cup with the Reds.
He was one of three key Liverpool players who will be out of contract this summer, along with right-back Trent Alexander-Arnold and centre-back Virgil van Dijk.
Netherlands defender Van Dijk has said there has been progress on talks over a new deal but Alexander-Arnold has been heavily linked with a move to Real Madrid.
[BBC]
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