Unamboowa clinches 100m backstroke with new record

• Wijekoon and Chandrika add athletic golds

Seevali Ediriweera in Dhaka Bangladesh

Swimmer Heshan Unamboowa produced a stunning performance in the pool when he clinched the men’s 100m backstroke with a new South Asian Games record of 58.98 while two more gold medals in track and field took Sri Lanka’s gold medal tally to 7 on day nine of the 11th South Asian Games here yesterday.
Unamboowa who skipped the 50m free-style in order to concentrate on his pet event was in awesome form as he became the cynosure of all eyes with a new meet record.
In athletics Sri Lanka’s team captain and Asian Championship silver medalist Chaminda Wijekoon was eying for his first-ever gold medal at the eight nation event as he raced to the finish mark with a time of  04 minutes 10:01 seconds in the men’s 1500m to give Sri Lanka its first gold medal in athletics.
P H Chamal won the bronze medal clocking a time of 4 minutes 10: 97 seconds to add to Sri Lanka’s medal tally.
In the men’s 200m dash Sri Lanka’s Chandrika Subashini proved that she has what it takes to be a champion at the regional games when she clocked a time of 24.50 seconds to win gold medal in the 200m dash. Though the timing looks below expectation, the medal was a welcome boost for Sri Lanka’s medal hunt in track and field events. Premila Priyadarshani managed silver with a time of 24.63 seconds.
However their male counter part and Sri Lanka’s one of brighter athletic prospects Shehan Ambepitiya was forced to be content with silver with a time of 21.19 seconds as gold medal went to India’s Abdul Najeeb.
In men’s high jump Sri Lanka added another silver when Nayana Prasad recorded a distance of 7.25 meters grab silver for Sri Lanka.
Meanwhile in swimming Miniruwani Samarakoon won a bronze in women’s 100m Butterfly event with a time of 1 minute 10:38 seconds.
Sri Lanka also won a bronze medal in shooting when KGD Pradeepika, R P Ramani and R S Buth Pitiya scored 1654 points to take the bronze in women’s 50m Rifle 3x20 team event.
In Men’s Taekwondo under 63 category Sri Lanka’s Nihal Wickramarathne lost his game 3-0 to Pakistan’s Naveed Khan. W Sugath qualified to the next round after receiving a walkover in under 68kg category event.  
Sisira Kumarasinghe and Saman Priyadarshana took part in men’s boxing 64kg lightweight and Feather weight 57kg category against Nepal boxers. 
Finals of the men’s and women’s 400m, men’s and women’s 4x100m Relay, men’s and women’s 100m Hurdles, men’s Javelin Throw, men’s Triple Jump will be lined up for today.
In the meantime Sri Lankan under 21 cricketers will meet Bangladesh in their quest to become the first ever gold medalists in cricket in the history of the South Asian Games today at 5.30 pm local time ( 5.pm Sri Lanka time). T20 Cricket has been added to South Asian Games for the first time in the history. 
Sri Lanka with 7 golds, 16 silver and 24 bronze were placed third in the medal tally.