Little Lanka's investments in sports paid off at the Bangkok Asian Games. Now, its athletes have their sights on the Sydney Olympics next year.
The 13th Asian Games in Bangkok in December 1998, billed the last "great games" of the century, may well hBaave been the dawn of a new and a more exciting era for South Asian athletics. The Subcontinent's sportsmen and women gave reigning champion, China, a run for their money at the Asian track and field events.
Shang Xiutang, general secretary of the Chinese Athletics Association, had said before the Bangkok games that China hoped to win more than half the gold medals on offer in athletics and named almost all the women's sprint events as sure wins for China. "In those events we can say that a few can pose a threat," he had boasted.
Shang had to eat his words. A new crop of Indian and Sri Lankan sprinters emerged to grab five gold, six silver and nine bronze medals in the track and field events. This was the first real challenge to the over two decades of Chinese dominance in Asian track and field. While India's performance was commendable, it was the performance of the much smaller Sri Lanka that became the envy of the other participating countries.