Archives

From the Press Box by Sa'adi Thawfeeq

The fact that Sri Lanka's solitary medal hope at the World Athletic championships in Paris, Susanthika Jayasinghe had to pull out of the women's 100 metres quarter-final round because of a hamstring injury, once again emphasises the importance of protecting our world class sportsmen and women.

This is not the first time in her chequered athletics career that Susanthika had been deprived of a medal due to a hamstring injury. It has happened to her twice before in the women's 100 metres event at the Asian Games in Bangkok in 1998 and again at Busan four years later.

The question that needs to be asked here is, why is Susanthika being asked to run in the 100 metres when her pet event is the 200 metres? By doing so she has not only deprived herself of winning several medals for herself but also for her country.

The two occasions she has brought glory and honour to her country has been in the women's 200 metres where she won a silver medal at the 1997 World Athletic championships in Athens and a bronze medal at the 2000 Olympic Games in Sydney. These two performances stand out head and shoulders above the rest of her achievements on the track because she was competing with the best athletes in the world. Susanthikas aim is to win gold at the 2004 Olympic Games in Athens, but her chances of doing so are going to be rather remote unless she gets herself a competent coach of international standing.

Campbell's influence

It is no secret that Susanthika learnt a great deal about training and how to peak herself up before an important event during the time she came under Tony Campbell, a reputed athletics coach from the USA. It was during her liaise with Campbell that Susanthika won the Olympic bronze to become the first Sri Lankan to win an Olympic medal for 52 years.

Thus, it is not surprising to hear Campbell bemoaning the lack of an international coach for Sri Lanka's star athlete. Campbell who is in Paris with the Saudi Arabian athletics team has said that Susanthika was wasting valuable time training at home whereas she should be training under a reputed coach outside her country.

Susanthika's husband Dhammika Nandakumar may have been an athlete of some standing but his ability to coach an athlete of the calibre of Susanthika is very much questionable. As Campbell says Susanthika needs to train in a country like USA where she will be running with some of the top class sprinters in the world and training with the latest techniques. These facilities are deprived to her if she is going to stick by her husband as coach.

Campbell has identified Susanthika as an athlete of great potential but unless she is given the proper guidance with the modern training facilities and techniques, her chances of winning a medal at the Athens Olympics is going to be very slim.

What has made Susanthika stand head and shoulders above her fellow athletes are her rare talent and the opportunities that she had got in the past to train abroad. Susanthika must know that she is not getting any younger. At 27 years she is more or less on the border line as a sprinter. As most sprinters are discovering for themselves at the World meet in Paris, the competition is so intense that sprinters tend to burn themselves out very quickly.

Lagging behind

Olympic men's 100 metres gold medalist Maurice Green who was also coached by Campbell found out for himself the hard way when he was eliminated from a place in the men's 100 metres final. Green was not at his best running with a thigh injury which once again emphasized how important it is to get the athletes trained properly and to be in good physical shape because of the fierceness of the competition today.

It is no secret that Sri Lanka lags far behind in technology and the latest training methods in sports. Those who have been able to cross the bridge at some point have tasted the fruits of success. The unfortunate ones can only achieve a certain standard, but unable to proceed further due to the lack of it. That is why it is so imperative that our sportsmen and women are given the best of facilities and trained under competent coaches not necessarily our own.

Susanthika's success at the Sydney Olympics and the Sri Lanka cricket teams victory in the 1996 World Cup are clear pointers to that fact.

www.crescat.com

News | Business | Features | Editorial | Security
Politics | World | Letters | Sports | Obituaries

Produced by Lake House
Copyright © 2003 The Associated Newspapers of Ceylon Ltd.
Comments and suggestions to :Web Manager