ATHENS, AUG 8: Susanthika Jayasinghe of Sri Lanka opened a golden chapter in the Asian sprinting history by winning the women's 200 metres silver despite a poor start while Trinidadian Ato Boldon spreadeagled the field to claim the men's gold in the sixth world athletic championships here.

The 21-year-old from the Varakapul village near Colombo who erased the Asian mark twice with scorching runs in the early rounds, came strongly in the last 40 metres from the fourth lane to shock defending champion Merlene Ottey of Jamaica to third place.

Zhanna Pintussevich of Ukraine, who narrowly missed the 100 metres gold, claimed the 200m gold medal firmly finishing in 22.32 seconds in a comparatively slow race run into a mild headwind of 0.7 metres per second.

Susanthika clocked 22.39sec -- her Asian record set in the semi-final is 22.33sec -- for the unprecedented effort for Sri Lanka. Ottey, who said she was not in the best of shape, was pushed to bronze medal in 22.40 seconds.

Olympic bronze medallist Ato Boldon finally found his moment under the sun by racing the track in 20.04 seconds to win the men's gold from the third lane. The double Olympic silver medallist Frank Fredericks losing the race even into the straight before taking silver in 20.23sec. Brazil's Claudinei da Silva won bronze in 20.26 seconds.

India's discus national record holder Shakti Singh fouled his first try and then could achieve only modest efforts of 50.42 metres and 56.28m to end up 18th among the 20 participants in the first qualifying group to go out of reckoning for a final spot by a long way.

The stipulation was 63.00m or the first 12. Germany's Jurgen Schult touched 64.60m to lead the list in the group.

Denmark's 800m phenomenon Wilson Kipketer failed to deliver an expected world record, but left the rest of the field to fight for lesser pickings from the 150 metres mark on, in retaining his title at one minute 43.38 seconds.

The 26-year-old Kenyan-born Kipketer, who missed the Atlanta Games due to Kenyan protests over his shift to Denmark, led all the way and still produced a strong kick to win in style.

The Olympic champion Vebjoern Rodal (Denmark) was pushed to fifth as Cuban Norberto Tellez landed the silver in 1:44.00 and Rich Kanah (US -- 1:44.25), The bronze. Rodal returned 1:44.53 behind Kenya's Patrick Konchellah (1:44.26).

Susanthika, totally exhausted by her effort fell into the arms of her coach Davin Peretra saying, ``Oh, I missed the start.'' She said but for that she was aiming for the gold medal as she was fully confident after the semifinal that she could land the title.

Speaking to reporters immediately after the race with the Sri Lankan sports minister SD Dissanayake as the interpreter, she said her aim was to put Sri Lanka on the world map in athletics as there had been no medal winning performance from the island nation in the last 50 years.

Merlene Ottey, grand dame of world sprinting who took her 14th medal today though the lustre was less, predicted a grand future for Susanthika. ``She should come to the European circuit and race regularly. I see a great future ahead of her,'' Ottey said in her post-race comments when asked.

The Asian champion had the poorest start among the finalists, but made up touching the straight and then both Pintussevich and Susanthika surged ahead to catch ottey ten metres left to decide the placings.

``She will be awarded 10 million Sri Lankan rupees (about $ 60,000) immediately,'' said the minister.

Morocco's Nezha Bidouane shocked Olympic champion Deon Hemmings of Jamaica by creeping up from the inside lane in the last few metres to land an upset 400 metres hurdles gold.

She clocked an African record 52.97 seconds while Hemmings returned 53.09 seconds for her season's best. The meet and world records stand against Kim Batten (US) name set in Gothenburg in 1995. Batten was pushed to third in 53.52 seconds.

Copyright © 1997 Indian Express Newspapers (Bombay) Ltd.