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| Saturday, 04 September 2004 |
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OLYMPIC GAMES REVIEW: Victory for US, hope for China Dinesh Weerawansa reporting from Greece ATHENS, Friday - Another Olympic Games has ended with victory for the United States and hope for China. There were many ups and downs during 16 memorable days of competition with Russia, Australia, Japan, Germany and France throwing a serious challenge to the two big names. The Americans came on top of the final medals tally with a rich haul of 103 medals, which included 35 gold medals. But the real winners at the Athens Games were the Chinese. China won 32 gold medals, just three short of the USA, and gave a clear indication the type of dominance they are bound to come out when the next Games are held on their home soil - Beijing 2008. But for the little Indian ocean island of Sri Lanka, it was a bitter experience with none of their competitors going beyond the first round, forget about medal chances or a place in a final altogether. Sri Lanka fielded a team of eight which included five athletes, two swimmers and a shooter. But seven of them painted a poor picture here while the other became just a passenger or a 'non playing captain'. Sri Lanka had everything to crow about at the previous Olympic Games in Sydney, 2000 as Susanthika Jayasinghe became a hero by winning her country's first Olympic medal in 52 years and the only the second by a Lankan after Duncan White's men's 440 yards hurdles silver in London, 1948. Jayasinghe secured the bronze in women's 200 in Sydney but here, she had loads of critics back home after her controversial pull out from women's 100m of the Athens Games and failure of qualifying for 200m. In defence and in fairness to Jayasinghe, one could not expect her to win medals all the time. She is a human and not a running machine. None of us could not exactly judge the gravity of the injury she complains. Even the doctors cannot exactly judge pain she suffers. Considering the medical opinion, Jayasinghe is the best judge to decide for herself. Undoubtedly she is the best ever athlete produced by Sri Lanka, winning an Olympic Games and World Championship medals. The women's 200m silver she won here at the same Olympic Stadium at the 1997 IAAF World Championship was the first ever and so far the only medal won by a Sri Lankan. We must not forget the glory and pride she has brought for our country. But at the same time, criticism and anger among public and die hard sports fans are understandable. She kept her pull out of women's 100m event of the Athens Olympics as a secret, though she indicated that in writing to the Sports Minister and the National Olympic Committee (NOC). Under the circumstances, the NOC still allowed her to make it to the Greek capital as a recognition of that dream medal she brought to the island but banned her husband coach Dhammika Nandakumara from the contingent. True that witnessing an Olympic Games is everyone's dream but had Jayasinghe decided to stay back home due to her injury, she would have earned greater respect. Of the seven Sri Lankan sportsmen and women who competed in Athens, high jumper Manjula Kumara Wijesekera lived up to expectations. Perhaps one could say he even was unable to come near the 2.27m feat he achieved at the National Championships a few weeks ago. But considering the fact that this is his first major international meet, though he had competed at the Asian Grand Prix and IAAF World Junior meet before, the 2.20m height he cleared in Athens Olympics is good and hope for the future. He has already won a full scholarship to an American university from later this year and with the exposure and experience he is bound to get there, the lad from down south is bound to shape up as a champion athlete. At present, he is the best medal hope for Sri Lanka in the international arena. Soldier Anuradha Indrajith Cooray too could be satisfied with his performance in men's marathon race of the Athens Olympics, where he finished 30th out of 113 competitors. It is a feat no other Sri Lankan long distance runner has achieved before. He could not better his personal best but that is understandable because of the extreme summer heat the competitors had to face and the tough route - identical to that of historic first ever marathon at the inaugural modern Olympics 1896 in Athens, 108 years ago. Cooray should be given much more exposure in the big league, if Sri Lanka is to shape up his talent. Except for Wijesekera and Cooray, the rest of the Lankans failed to make any impact. Sprinter Rohan Pradeep Kumara Fernando, of whom much was expected, was not at his brilliant best. True the competition level in men's 400m at any Olympic Game is tough but considering the real talent of the lad from Negombo, Fernando should have made it at least to the second round. His coach Sunil Gunawardena too put his bets on Fernando but the things did not go to Sri Lanka's liking. At the same time, we could not forget his contribution to Sri Lanka as it is just a month before the Olympics that he won all three races of the 2004 Asian Grand Prix series. To many Damayanthi Darsha is a big disappointment. Except for Jayasinghe, Darsha is the most successful Sri Lankan athlete ever, winning three Asian Games gold medals and one bronze in three successive Games since 1994. But the one year lay off she had due to an injury last year hampered her career badly and she is just regaining her form back. But the last place she secured in women's 400m heats here has no excuse. The future of her career depends on how fast she would regain her form for the next South Asian Games. It's from there that she could think of a record fifth Asian Games medal in Doha 2006. She too lacks international competition and training. Better results could be obtained if she gets a chance to train overseas. Swimmers Conrad Francis and Menaka de Silva were completely off colour. Honestly, Sri Lanka could not expect greater things from their swimmers considering the standard of the sport back home and the high level of competition at a sports event of this nature. But Francis, with all his experience in Australia for the last several months, should have done better, at least to make it to the second round in his men's 100m butterfly event. De Silva too failed to better at least the Sri Lanka mark for women's 50 freestyle event. It is unreasonable and unrealistic to expect greater performance from Francis and De Silva but they should have at least registered their personal best timings. Nevertheless, with the experience they gained, the duo are predicted to do well at the Asian regional level, especially at next year's South Asian Games. For shooter Pushpamali Ramanayake, this was her third Olympics after making debut in Barcelona 12 years ago. She can not complain much about experience and exposure as she is an experienced campaigner. But she is now in the descending curve oh her career having reached the peak in the nineties during which she made Sri Lanka proud with a gold medal at the 1994 Commonwealth Games. There again, one must commend the determination and courage of Ramanayake to fire so long under poor facilities with no electronic target system at ranges in Sri Lanka. If she had got modern training facilities during her peak, she would have gone greater guns, perhaps at the Olympic level too. Chef de Mission, Joseph Kenny did a wonderful job and accomplished his task well. Athletic Manager, Commodore Shemal Fernando of Sri Lanka Navy took all the trouble to look into the needs of the five athletes and did his duties well. It is the time to take a stock of what went wrong for Sri Lanka, not to put the blame on anyone. Identify the plus and minus points and prepare for the future. We must prepare a good environment for our sportsmen and women to sharpen their skills, keep them off their physical and mental stress. Then world class champion athletes have no worries, but their day to day training. But our sportsmen and women have to undergo various problems in life, despite their determination to survive in the sport. If Sri Lanka is to go greater guns in sports, we must carefully nature our top athletes. Identify at least a handful of medal prospects and give them the necessary facilities and environment to blossom. Unless that happens and our sports administrators and coaches work with a vision without petty differences, this same old story would be written even after the 2008 Beijing Olympics. |
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