Lankan swimmers find Rio weather to their liking

Sri Lanka swimmers Matthew Abeysinghe and Kimiko Raheem, who shared 12 gold medals between them at the last South Asian Games in India, find the weather conditions and the Olympic pool water to their liking as the duo completed another work out today under the watchful eyes of coach Manoj Abeysinghe.

Matthew Abeysinghe who becomes the first ever Lankan swimmer to compete in Olympics as a qualified swimmer who had reached entry standards, said both the weather in Rio, as well as the temperature in the pool look ideal. “The weather in Rio is fine and the pool looks a fast one. We are in good shape. My aim is to erase my own Sri Lanka record and look for a place in the final line up. It is hard but I will try my best to achieve it,” said Abeysinghe at the Olympic Village.

Seventeen-year-old Raheem too endorsed the same view. “Conditions here are fine, the weather looks okey and the pool temperature appears to be good. The time difference between Rio and Thailand, where I have been training for the last one year, is ten hours. But I feel that I have now adjusted myself to the time difference,” she said.

Secretary General of the National Olympic Committee of Sri Lanka Maxwell de Silva, who is also the Chef-de-mission of the Lankan contingent, along with Director General of Sports, Saman Priyantha Bandara visited the Lankan athletes at the Olympic Village and looked to their needs.

Although shooter Mangala Samarakoon found a shortage of ammunition, the authorities made immediate arrangements to obtain a supply so that he could have sufficient training before his pet event. “I have trained hard.. I think I should be able to fire a good score here,” Samarakoon said.

He is coached here by former Commonwealth Games gold medallist, Pushpamali Ramanayake, who had represented Sri Lanka at 1992 Barcelona Olympics. “We have sorted out the ammunition issue and he will get the material soon to go ahead with his training, uninterrupted,” she said.

Sri Lanka’s flag bearer at Friday’s opening ceremony, Anuradha Indrajith Cooray has been hard at training. He has come across with some encouraging timings at training workouts and is confident that he could finish within the first ten, if the weather keeps fine.

Meanwhile Jamaica’s fastest man on earth Usain Bolt faces the danger of losing one of the three gold medals he had won at the 2008 Beijing Olympics. The 4 100m relay gold he won for Jamaica team could be taken away after a stored sample from a relay teammate reportedly tested positive for a banned substance.

The shocking news emerged from a recent crackdown by Olympic officials, who are using new and sophisticated technology to reanalyze hundreds of samples from the past two Summer Games. Sprinter Nesta Carter was found to have a banned substance in his system at the time of the Beijing 2008 Games. Carter anchored Jamaican to win 400m relay gold in world-record time that year. He was also a vital link in the victorious Jamaican team at the 2012 London Games and several IAAF world championships

Sri Lanka beats Australia by 229 runs and take series 2-0

Sri Lanka beat Australia by 229 runs on day three of the second test to take an unassailable 2-0 lead in the three-match series at Galle on Saturday.

Chasing 413 for victory, Australia were all out for 183 in their second innings in the afternoon session.Sri Lanka last won a series against Australia in 1999 and the teams move to Colombo now for the third and final Test from next Saturday to see if the hosts can somplete a sweep.

Sri Lankan off-spinner Dilruwan Perera’s 6 for 70 haul took the hosts closer to the historic series win.

Overnight batsmen David Warner (41) and skipper Steve Smith (30) offered some resistance with their 51-run fourth wicket partnership but both of them fell to Perera’s guile.

Warner, who tried to counter attack during his 31-ball innings, was trapped LBW off a straighter Perera delivery that hit the batsman on the front pad.

Smith, who used his feet well against the spinners during his 58-ball stay, was the next to go as he gave away a catch at backward short leg.

Perera, who also took two wickets on Friday, then bowled Adam Voges for 28 to register his fourth five-wicket haul in 11 Test matches.

But it was veteran spinner Rangana Herath (2 for 74) who set up Sri Lanka’s chances of victory after bagging his maiden Test hat-trick to help dismiss Australia for a record low of 106 in its first innings.

Herath and Perera shared four wickets between them on a chaotic second day which saw the fall of 21 wickets and put the match on the fast track.

The teams move to Colombo now for the third and final test from next Saturday.

-Agencies

Yoshitha Rajapaksa taken to Police following a fist fight

MR’s navy son Yoshitha Rajapaksa and a few other rogues of his Rugby Sports Club have been brought to the Kurunduwatta Police Station for assaulting a rugby player of Kandy Rugby Sports Club. 

Reportedly, Yoshitha’s crony Dhanushka Perera alias ‘Ghathaya’ has inhumanly assaulted a Kandy Sports Club player named Farook after saying that this time, Super 7’s Rugby tournament is being held in a better way than on the previous occasion. 

As soon as it got the news, the Kurunduwatta Police had come and picked the clan of rogues including Yoshitha, and as the latest development of the incident the Rajapaksa senior is said to be resorting to the PM regarding the matter.

Pakistan Authorities poison at least 700 stray dogs

Pakistanis are shaming Karachi authorities over their poisoning of at least 700 stray dogs. City officials counter that the canines bite thousands of people yearly, and there is no other way to curb the problem.

Warning: you may find these images disturbing.

The poisoning of dogs got a fierce reaction from social network users, with most of them being outraged at the authorities’ actions.

“Just bloody horrible”, “Spread the word. Shame on Karachi authorities!”, “No more cruelty” were just a few among the angry messages.

Dog corpses were lying along the streets of the 20-million city, and the city employees have been disposing of them.

"At least 700 dogs have been killed only in two areas of Karachi's south in the last couple of days," Sattar Javed, a spokesman for the municipal authority, confirmed to Reuters.

Here’s how the authorities kill the strays: they hide poison tablets in chicken meat, and give the meat to the animals.

The Pakistani animal rights activists have spoken out against the practice, but the city authorities said there is no other way to cope with the growing population of dogs, which attack the locals.

According to stats, last year, Karachi's Jinnah Hospital treated 6,500 people bitten by dogs, and this year saw about 3,700 incidents, according to Dr Seemin Jamali, head of the emergency room, as quoted by Reuters.

Officials don’t have the exact estimates of the total number of strays killed at the moment. However, they say that thousands should be culled in total.

This morning at Pakistan chowk the Karachi City Government displayed a 1,000 dogs poisoned by Saddar Town. pic.twitter.com/HIKBsPreMM

— PAWS (@pawspakistan) August 4, 2016

woman set on fire by husband in Sammanthurai

A woman succumbed to injuries after being set on fire by her husband last morning.Samanthurai Police said a dispute between the two had led to the incident.

The deceased was identified as Morris Mareena, aged 30. A magisterial inquest was held in the house she was killed in, and her husband arrested.A postmortem is scheduled. Samanthurai Police is investigating.

Rangana Herath takes hat-trick against Australia

Rangana Herath claimed a hattrick against Australia after the left-hand bowler dismissed Adam Voges, Peter Nevill and Mitchell Starc on consecutive deliveries during the second Test match between Australia and Sri Lanka at Galle.

Herath became only the second Sri Lanka bowler to achieve the feat.Sri Lanka are currently playing a home series of three Tests against the Kangaroo team.

Having one the first game, hosts Sri Lanka came into this encounter with some confidence by the side.After batting first, the home team were bundled out for 281 on day 1.Australia too couldn’t start the proceedings in decent way losing the first wicket without a score on the board.

Opener David Warner was on song and his aggressive batting display was taking on the Lankan bolwers before Dilruwan Perera stopped his ferocious batting. Australia ended day 1 at 54/2.

But the real show on day 2 began when the left-arm spinner Herath held the red cherry in his hands. He first sent Australia captain Steve Smith back in the hut to reduce the visitors to 59/4.The spinner was on a rampage with his bowling as he troubled every batsmen who came in his way.

But it was the 25th over of the innings that etched Herath’s name in record books.Adam Voges was the first man to take the long walk back as he smashed one to Karunaratne who took a good forward diving low catch.

Voges’ dismissal was followed by wicket-keeper batsman Peter Nevill’s scalp who was trapped by Herath in front of the stumps.Tail-end batsman and star of Australia’s first innings bowling Mitchell Starc came in at no.8 to face the music.

Herath tossed the ball a bit and it hit Starc’s pads in front of the wickets.A loud appeal from Herath and co. was turned down by the umpire.Captain Angelo Mathews decided to go upstairs to review the decision and the third umpire overturned the on-fieled decision to give Starc out.

This is the second time when a bowler from Lanakan island has achieved a hattrick.Previously, it was seamer Nuwan Zoysa who claimed the feat.

Govt. to set up new city in Hambantota

The government is to set up a ‘new city’ in the proposed China-Sri Lanka Industrial Zone in the Hambantota district, it is learnt.

Chinese Ambassador Yi Xianliang paid a visit to the area and had talks with Prime Minister Ranil Wickremesinghe recently on the construction of the industrial zone. According to the Chinese embassy, the two sides explored the lands in the area. The Prime Minister also held talks with Chinese investors.

At the meeting, the Prime Minister expressed his views on establishing a Sri Lanka-China Joint Committee, building a new city and carrying out vocational and technical training in the industrial zone. Meanwhile, the Prime Minister mentioned the idea of a "Colombo-Kandy-Hambantota Corridor" by linking the Colombo Port City, Hambantota Habour, Bandaranaike International Airport and Mattala International Airport.

Ambassador Yi emphasized that the Hambantota industrial zone was an industrial zone with comprehensive and multiple with significance for both Sri Lanka and China.

It had no doubt the industrial zone would promote all-around development of Sri Lanka in the near future. Ambassador Yi also inspected the projects of Mattala International Airport, the Hambantota Habour and Conference Center. (Kelum Bandara)

65th SLFP Convention on 4 September

The 65th Convention of the Sri Lanka Freedom Party (SLFP) will be held on 4 September, Minister of Fisheries and SLFP Vice President, Mahinda Amaraweera announced yesterday.

Addressing a media briefing held at the ministry headquarters the minister said the upcoming convention, to be held in Kurunegla, would be the largest and most attended convention of the SLFP in its history.

He went on to say that there will be religious observances from 1-3 September, before the commencement of the convention.

He added that all SLFPers were expected to take part in the convention.