Sports

Tough selection standards announced for Asian Games

Published

4 years ago

2021/10/6

Sahan Weerasooriya

Sri Lanka Athletics sets plans to end medal drought

by Reemus Fernando

Sri Lanka Athletics announced tough qualifying standards for next year’s Asian Games yesterday as the track and field governing body intends to form a formidable team to end more than a decade old medal drought at the quadrennial event in Hangzhou, China.

The selection criteria compiled by the coaching committee require athletes to be in the bronze medal winning standards of the past Asian Games to be eligible for selections. The tough standards explained in a comprehensive 18-page document make it compulsory for national record performances to warrant selections in a number of disciplines.

Tough standards

To make it simple, Italy based sprinter Yupun Abeykoon, who is one of country’s top athletes has to slash five milliseconds from his national record to earn a slot to represent the country in the men’s 100 metres individual event as the qualifying standard is set at 10.10 seconds.

Despite being ranked third in Asia currently in the women’s 800 metrers, Dilshi Kumarasinghe has to break her national record with a performance of 2:01.40 seconds or faster if she is to qualify in her pet event. Nilani Ratnayake who almost qualified for Tokyo Olympics too has to produce a record-breaking feat to qualify for the 3,000 metres steeplechase.

The leading men’s 400 metres sprinter Kalinga Kumarage who reached his personal best of 45.73 seconds in Patiala in June has to further slash some 0.03 seconds from his best if he is to qualify.

Looks easy for Ushan

Based on this year’s performances an athlete who is almost certain to secure a place in the team is the US based high jumper Ushan Thivanka whose national record performance of 2.30 metres in May is above the qualifying standard (2.25m).

The performances achieved at competitions conducted by the Sri Lanka Athletics and at events recognized by the World Athletics between February 2022 and April 2022 will be considered as the deadline for entries closes on April 30, 2022.

Sri Lanka Athletics will conduct Trial meets in February and March before going for the centenary National Championships (April) which will be considered as the final selection trial.

The track and field governing body has also announced a standard to qualify for the Asian Games and Commonwealth Games pools. Athletes qualifying for both the Asian Games and the Commonwealth Games will also have to face compulsory trials and fitness tests where set standards have to be achieved. In the event athletes fail to reach qualifying standards the selectors will fill the given quota with the top performers closest to standards.

Sri Lanka Athletics has set a bold target of five medals to end the medal drought at the Asian Games.

While Sri Lanka failed to win medals in any sport at the last Asian Games in 2018 the country’s last medals in athletics were won at the 2006 Doha Games. While Rohan Pradeep Kumara, Rohitha Pushpakumara, Prasanna Amarasekara and Ashoka Jayasundara combined to win men’s 4×400 metres bronze, the last individual medals in athletics, women’s 100 metres silver and 200 metres bronze were won by Susanthika Jayasinghe in Doha.

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Sports

Trinity take first innings honours against S. Thomas’

Published

7 hours ago

2026/02/26

Sahan Weerasooriya

Pulisha Thilakarathne top scored with 89 runs and held the top order batting together as Trinity scored first innings points and took major honours in the Ranil Abeynayake Memorial Trophy cricket encounter at BRC ground on Wednesday.

‎Trinity took a first innings lead of over 50 runs and declared their innings with two wickets in hand to find Thomians doing better in the second essay.

‎Jayden Amaraweera was in the forefront of the Thomian revival in the second innings as he scored his second half century of the match. Aaron Kodituwakku missed a second half century by five runs.

‎For Trinity, Mahendra Abeysinghe and Dinal Fernando were the others to make contributions with over 40 runs, while Aadham Hilmy made 32.

‎Scores:

‎S. Thomas’ 189 all out in 77.4 overs

‎(Aaron Kodituwakku 72, Jaden Amaraweera 50, Shanil Perera 37n.o.; ‎Kanika Anthony 5/66, Dinal Fernando 3/34) and 182 for 5 in 53 overs (Jaden Amarawera 68, Aaron Kodituwakku 45;

‎Chaniru Senarathne 2/44)

‎Trinity 54 for 1 overnight 246 for 8 decl. in 58.2 overs (Pulisha Thilakarathne 89, Mahendra Abeysinghe 44, Dinal Fernando 45, Adam Hilmy 32; Abheeth Paranawidana 4/95, Gimhan Mendis 3/41) (RF)

Latest News

India and Zimbabwe out to raise the roof at Chepauk

Published

7 hours ago

2026/02/26

Priyan

As India seek to return to winning ways, they will hope to boost their net run-rate as well [Cricbuzz]

Blue jerseys on the backs of a teeming crowd along the Walajah Road on Thursday evening will finally not be out of context. Fans in Chennai have embraced every team that has set foot in the city and played at the iconic venue, turning up in tens of thousands even for sweltering afternoon matches here. But India are finally in town, with everything riding on their fixture.

For the second World Cup in a row, the locals were meant to be treated to an India-Australia spectacle. That’s what the pre-tournament seeding had it chalked down as. But Zimbabwe emphatically struck that out, proving once again that there are no certainties in this format.

Speaking of no certainties, India have reached Chennai with their tag of favourites fast fading, and their batting – unrivaled until the tournament began – is now being seriously questioned. Not all is lost yet of course, but the Net Run Rate column has them in a tangle. The defeat to South Africa means India can only reach four points at best. There’s a possibility where they could be dragged into a three-way tangle for two semifinal spots with NRR being the deciding factor. The decimation in Ahmedabad left them with -3.800, which they need to resuscitate over the next four days. Wins alone won’t cut it.

Zimbabwe are now in the same boat, needing two wins and a surge in NRR. Their unbeaten journey through the group stage in Sri Lanka was cut short violently by West Indies in Mumbai, where a six-hitting batting line-up and the short square boundaries caught them unawares. Chennai offers better dimensions in that regard, but there will be the challenge of dew to deal with.

The competitiveness of the Super Eights group has raised the stakes for the 3 PM fixture on Thursday too. West Indies and South Africa will jostle for two crucial points in Ahmedabad, and nearly 2,000 kilometers away in Chennai, India and Zimbabwe will watch on keenly for as long as they can.

Yet, their futures in the tournament will still be determined by what they can control later that evening, as Chepauk gears up to bounce with bated anticipation for one last time at the World Cup.

Equal-sized square boundaries, with the game to be played on the central pitch (No.5). It’s confirmed to be a black soil surface, but in what will come as music to India’s ears, Chepauk has the worst bowling strike-rate and second-worst bowling average for spinners among the eight venues in this World Cup.

Furthermore, they might just stumble upon the true surface they have sought all along. In the two 7 PM matches at the venue, first innings scores have been 200/4 (by Afghanistan) and 196/6 (by USA).

Batting coach Sitanshu Kotak revealed that there have been conversations about changes to mix up the left-handed top-three. Sanju Samson, who batted long and did keeping drills two days out from the fixture, could be an option.

Kotak also confirmed that Rinku Singh had left to attend to his ailing father but was due to return on Wednesday evening. There’s still a chance India don’t feature him and maintain their batting depth by adding to the heft at the top. With only two left-handers in Zimbabwe’s top-order, expect Axar Patel to reclaim his spot too.

“Sikandar Raza is 100% playing. Good luck telling him that he’s not going to play against India,” Ryan Burl said with a chuckle. The Zimbabwe skipper took a hit to his left palm in the game against West Indies in Mumbai, but is ready to go again.

Zimbabwe could resist the urge to make changes after the big loss in Mumbai, and instead choose to alter their bowling plans. Against West Indies, they used four quicks and just two spinners in Raza and Graeme Cremer. If the opportunity comes up, Raza could throw on leg-spinner Burl against the likes of Suryakumar and Tilak in the middle-overs.

India Probable XI:Abhishek Sharma, Sanju Samson (wk), Ishan Kishan, Tilak Varma, Suryakumar Yadav (c), Shivam Dube, Hardik Pandya, Axar Patel, Arshdeep Singh, Varun CV, Jasprit Bumrah

Zimbabwe Probable XI:Brian Bennett, Tadiwanashe Marumani (wk), Dion Myers, Ryan Burl, Sikandar Raza (c), Tony Munyonga, Tashinga Musekiwa, Brad Evans, Graeme Cremer, Richard Ngarava, Blessing Muzarabani

[Cricbuzz]

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South Africa vs West Indies: Clash of heavyweights in another high-stakes battle in Ahmedabad

Published

7 hours ago

2026/02/26

Priyan

Is the ICC’s Super Eight the silliest qualifying process in the sporting universe? The unfathomable permutations of UEFA’s rejigged Champions League might beg otherwise. But it’s surely in a club of two.

After precisely two completed fixtures in an impressively sub-standard Group 2 of this T20 World Cup, we already knew our first semi-finalists … and even England themselves might be wondering how on earth they are still pointing in the right direction after their endless flirtations with catastrophe.

Over in Ahmedabad, however, there’s significantly more jeopardy brewing in Group 1. West Indies and South Africa, the two remaining unbeaten teams in the tournament, are gearing up for a heavyweight clash of the most literal variety, but even after they’ve finished battering seven bells out of each other, the victors will have no gurantees of progression just yet.

For West Indies, in particular, this feels like a must-win contest. They could hardly have laid out a more emphatic marker than their 107 run win over Zimbabwe on Monday. But, even allowing for that hefty NRR boost, a wounded India await as their final Super Eight fixture on Sunday. If that ends up being a straight knockout, then it’d be best to lay the killer blow here and now.

West Indies certainly have the form and the focus to do so. But, thrillingly, so do their opponents. In a tournament marked by reticence from a host of likely contenders, West Indies and South Africa have both been refreshingly route-one in their approach. Shimron Hetmyer’s 85 from 34 balls against Zimbabwe may have been the apogee of attacking batting in the tournament to date, but it was merely a continuation of the pedal-to-metal approach that enabled his team to out-muscle England by 13 sixes to six in their statement victory in Kolkata a fortnight ago.

South Africa, similarly, have not been backward in coming forward. India must have thought their last contest was in the bag when Jasprit Bumrah reprised his Barbados impact to reduce them to 20 for 3 after four overs at this same venue. They reckoned without a relentlessly aggressive middle order of Dewald Brevis, David Miller and Tristan Stubbs, who kept piling into the breach to produce a total of 187 for 7 that Marco Jansen soon proved to be more than enough to defend. A win on Thursday will almost certainly place South Africa in the semis, unless India lose all three games in the Super Eight.

More such bravery will be the requirement on Thursday. On a localised level, it’s thrilling to have such a high-stakes encounter at this stage of the competition. In reality, though, each of the tournament’s three likeliest winners would appear to have been crammed into the same under-sized pool. It’s sink-or-risk-being-sunk time at the Narendra Modi Stadium.

With 11 wickets at 12.18 – including eight in his last two outings, at this very venue, against New Zealand and India – Marco Jansen has the form and the method to make another statement impact for his team. Five of those wickets came in the powerplay – three against New Zealand, though they used his pace and bounce against him in between whiles, and two against India, who were never allowed to rally after his first-ball extraction of Tilak Varma. Every team craves a rangy left-arm seamer in this format, and Jansen’s combinations of angle, accuracy and steepling bounce mark him out as one of the very best.

If West Indies are to win, their batters need to keep swinging with the freedom and confidence that has brought them this far already. And no-one epitomises their current mood better than Shimron Hetmyer. With 219 runs at 54.75, he is the tournament’s second-highest run-scorer, behind Sahibzada Farhan’s tally of 283. In terms of pure six-hitting, his tally of 17 puts him way out on his own. If his game can sometimes seem too loose to function consistently, then it is entirely in keeping with West Indies’ mighty T20I heritage, including his 2016 forebears who counted almost exclusively in boundaries as they powered to their second world title, here on Indian soil, a decade ago.

No obvious reasons for West Indies to tinker with their winning formula, although Roston Chase’s offspin could be a consideration, especially with the significant core of left-handers in South Africa’s batting ranks. He would also add further depth to the batting line-up.

West Indies (probable): Brandon King, Shai Hope (capt & wk), Shimron Hetmyer, Rovman Powell, Sherfane Rutherford, Romario Shepherd, Jason Holder, Matthew Forde, Akeal Hosein / Roston Chase, Gudakesh Motie, Shamar Joseph.

The team that took on India was the strongest that South Africa could have put out, and for such a crunch contest, there’s no reason to think they’ll fiddle with their options.

South Africa (probable): Aiden Markram (capt), Quinton de Kock (wk), Ryan Rickelton, Dewald Brevis, David Miller, Tristan Stubbs, Marco Jansen, Corbin Bosch, Keshav Maharaj, Kagiso Rabada, Lungi Ngidi.

[Cricinfo]