Sports

Shanika breaks lockdown shackles to erase 35 year old athletics record

Published

4 weeks ago

December 30, 2020

Dilshan Nadeera

98th National Athletics Championship

by Reemus Fernando

Emerging school athlete Shanika Lakshani competing alongside seniors shattered one of the oldest athletics records when she clocked 4:33.40 seconds to finish the women’s 1500 metres at the 98th National Athletics Championship concluded at the Sugathadasa Stadium on Tuesday.

The Holy Cross College, Gampaha athlete was one of the school athletes taking part in the Nationals in a bid to achieve entry standards for the postponed World Under-20 Championships in Nairobi. The athlete trained by Madura Perera came almost close to achieving entry standards in both 800 metres and 1500 metres.

Though she narrowly missed the entry mark, she could improve, by nearly two seconds, the Sri Lanka Junior Record for women’s 1500 metres, which had remained untouched for 35 years.

“She has not taken part in many 1,500 metres. She was a bit too fast in the first and the second laps. Otherwise she could have accomplished the target (earning entry standards). Looking back at the circumstances under which she had to train, this is a huge accomplishment,” said Madura Perera the coach of Lakshani in an interview with The Island.

The area she lives had been under lockdown due to the outbreak of the Covid 19 pandemic. But Madura and his team had received the support of the Gampaha District Additional Secretary to conduct a residential camp after initial training had been hampered due to the pandemic.

The more than three decades old record was held by former National Champion Dammika Menike who created the mark (4:35.70 seconds) at the Asian Intercity Junior meet in Singapore in 1985.

Lakshani also did well in the 800metres finishing in a time of 2:08.90 seconds.

Lakshani who represented Sri Lanka at the Asian Youth Athletics Championship in 2019 was among several school athletes who tried their best at the National Championship which was the only national level athletics event held this year.

Meanwhile, on day two of the event, Dharmapala College, Pannipitiya hurdler Senuri Anuththara who was another World Under-20 Championship aspirant, clocked 14.60 seconds in the 100 metres hurdles to shatter the junior record held by Harshani Wijesinghe (2009).

Sports

Arthur bemoans poor batting after second Test goes ‘horribly wrong’

Published

5 hours ago

January 27, 2021

Sahan Weerasooriya

Angelo Mathews was bowled attempting to sweep Dom Bess (SLC)

Sri Lanka “let it slip in one disastrous session”, says coach, after second Galle defeat

Sri Lanka threw it away. Their hyper-aggressive approach to the second innings wasn’t part of the plan. And their 126 all out ruined three days of good work.

These were Mickey Arthur’s takeaways after the dispiriting 2-0 loss against England. Sri Lanka had established a 37-run first-innings lead on the fourth morning, with England due to bat in the fourth innings. And yet, their batsmen crumbled to 66 for 6 before lunch – five of those players dismissed playing attacking shots. That phase of play essentially handed England the match, even if they eventually had to chase 164 for victory, thanks to a late 40 from No. 10 Lasith Embuldeniya.

“We fought and fought and fought for three days and got ourselves in a really good position, and in two hours we proceeded to throw it away,” Arthur said. “It was poor batting. It’s something I’m going to sit and talk with the players about now. When we lead the game, we’ve got to be able to put our foot on the neck of the opposition and we didn’t do that. That today just wasn’t good enough. We’ve got to learn to be ruthless.”

Such was Sri Lanka’s commitment to wanton aggression in this innings, that there were questions whether the team had agreed that all-out attack was their best way forward in this Test. Arthur said, however, that the plan had actually been to progress more gradually, and to bat time, as they had in the second innings of the first Test, when Sri Lanka made 359 in 136.5 overs.

“That was nowhere near our gameplan. Our gameplan this morning was to absorb pressure, grind away, and grind out a couple of sessions to make sure that we got ourselves into a very good position to push for the win tomorrow. That was our strategy. We had a long chat about that this morning. We used the blueprint of our second innings in the first Test match as something that we wanted to base our innings on. Somewhere it’s gone horribly wrong. That’s something I’m going to dig up and find tonight.”

The first Test was lost due to a similar collapse, in the first innings of the match that time. Sri Lanka were skittled for 135, again playing with extreme aggression.

“This isn’t the first time that it’s happened, and it’s something I need to look into with the team,” Arthur said. “We let it slip in one disastrous session. Much like in the first Test when we let slip in the first innings again. We can’t afford as a team to have those poor sessions. We’ve got to get our good and our bad closer together. The game was there for us to take and we didn’t take it. Extremely disappointed with that.”

Among the only bright spots for Sri Lanka for this series was the bowling of Embuldeniya, who took 10 for 210 in this Test, and also produced his best first-class score with the bat. Embuldeniya had not been selected for the Tests against South Africa several weeks earlier, but through the course of this series has presented a case for being considered Sri Lanka’s premier Test spinner.

“I was very excited for Lasith Embuldeniya,” Arthur said. “He works so hard at his game. When you get those rewards, in his ninth or tenth Test match, it’s unbelievable. I always tell him he’s got the gift of the fingers – he’s able to spin the ball. I think he’s got a wonderful future. He really is a very impressive young man and spin bowler. I’m very excited to be working with him in future, because I think he’s going to be very special.” (ESPN)

Sports

SSC to name indoor nets after Michael De Zoysa

Published

5 hours ago

January 27, 2021

Sahan Weerasooriya

Singhalese Sports Club today will name their indoor nets after club stalwart Michael De Zoysa.

Michael, who passed away recently, had been with SLC for almost half a century and had served the club in various capacities.

He was Manager of the Sri Lankan cricket team when they won ICC World T 20 in 2014.

Sports

Chess Champs Academy emerge champions

Published

5 hours ago

January 27, 2021

Sahan Weerasooriya

Online Women’s Rapid Team Chess Cup 2021

Chess Champs Academy team led by Thilini Koswatte won the maiden Online Women’s Rapid Teams Chess Cup conducted by the Chess Federation of Sri Lanka (CFSL). At the grand finals, which was held in double rounds, each player received black and white moves. Chess Champs scored three match points against their rivals who could score only one match point in first round.

In the first round the Women Grand Master from Kazakhstan, Gulmira Dauletota and Tharushi Sandeepani scored points for Passed Pawns while Women International Master from India Isha Sharma and Saumy Zainab scored points for Chess Champs Academy. But, in the second round Thilini played a key role out playing strong Kazakhstani WGM Gulmira at a critical juncture when their WIM Isha Sharma had suffered a lost from Sri Lankan Women International Master Sachini Ranasinghe. Dinushki Premanath and Saumy Zainab, both former national champions excelled scoring full points for their team. Chess Champs beat Passed Pawns 3-1 in the second round to win the championship.

According to CFSL a total of 275 players belonging to 55 teams participated in the tournament and teams were categorized into three Divisions according to their player ratings.

The Division ‘C’ consisting of the lowest ranked 27 teams played pm January 14. The top three teams of that division then advanced to the ‘B’ Division to compete against the 23 teams in that division on January 16.

The top three teams of ‘B’ Division advanced to play a round robin event with top five ranked teams in the ‘A’ Division on January 17.

The top four teams of the ‘A’ Division, paired according to double knock out method competed in the final stage.

Results

Passed Pawns CC (Champions of ‘A’ Division) beat Fischer Chess Club ‘A’ (4th in ‘A’ Division) 3-1

Chess Champ Academy (1st Runner up of ‘A’ Division) beat Fischer Chess Club ‘B’ 3-1.

Results of the Finals

Round 1.

Chess Champ Academy tied Passed Pawns 2-2

Round 2

Chess Champ Academy beat Passed Pawns 3-1

Teams:

Chess Champ Academy: Thilini Koswatte (Captain), Dinushki Premanath, WIM Isha Sharma, Saumy Zainab and Prasansa Premanath.