Sri Lankan lass Mihilya Methsarani became the only competitor to reach a final of a squash event in a Commonwealth Games.
To enter the Plate final of the women’s event she defeated the Kenyan girl Khaalig Nimji in straight sets 3-0. Her victory yesterday makes her go to the history books as the first woman to enter a final of an international squash event from Sri Lanka.
She is to meet a competitor from Barbados Meagan Best who managed to enter the final beating Pakistan’s Madina Zafar in the semi final yesterday. The final between the two is scheduled to be played today at 6.00 p.m. (Australian time)
With her victory she also gave made a point to the Squash Federation that the time has come for them to take steps to develop the sport in Sri Lanka to make way for young squash players reach international standards.
Mathew Abeysinghe competing in the second semi final of the 100 meters Free Style event clocked a very low time finishing on 49.43 seconds to be placed at the sixth position.
The worst was that he was not able touch the time he clocked in the quarter final 49.11 seconds. His poor timing put him out of the final. Mathew had a good start and was among the top swimmers at the halfway mark but after the turnaround he could not keep the tempo to challenge the swimmers in the front.
If Mathew managed to finished the event with the time he clocked in the quarter final he could have entered the final.
Aklanka Peiris the other swimmer competing in the first semifinal of the 50 meters Back Stroke clocked 26.62 seconds which sent him out of the final. With his timing he was placed as the sixth out of eight swimmers.
It was a disappointment to all fans in Sri Lanka.
Sri Lanka’s most experienced a Weightlifter Chinthana Vidanage failed to live up to expectations when he was placed fourth in the 77 kg Clean and Jerk category lifting only 176 kgs.
India’s Sathishumar Sivalingam who had the best lift of 212 kgs won the Gold while the silver medal was won by Jack Oliver of England and Auatralian Francois Etoundi carried away the bronze respectively.
After the Clean was completed Chintana was well placed and all spectators and supporters were of the view that he could be the winner. But things took a different turn with the commencement of the Jerk with Jack Oliver, Satish and Francois getting to their best from the first lift in the Jerk and cruised along smoothly to have good lifts.
At this stage too Chinthan was well placed holding on to the 4th position having two more lifts for him. All who supported were with the intention that the Sri Lanka lifter was moving towards the Gold in style. The other top three from Australia, England and India made best their penultimate lifts to pose a big challenge to Chinthana.
Chinthana was also expected to do the Jerk well to go past the medal contenders. Sastish Kumar had one of the best lifts and got past the leader Jack Oliver to move to third position with a heavier weight and brought down Chinthan’s position to fourth.
It was left for the Lankan to do the needful with a much heavier lift to be on the contention for a medal but the unfortunate happened at this at the last lift when he failed to make it happen in way he wanted with a weight of 175kgs. This failure put him out of the podium.
Chinthana speaking to the Sunday Observer said that as he warmed up well and in good condition to lift 175 kgs but the delay in calling him to do the last lift completely demoralized him. “I consider it as the main issue for my failure”, he said.