Ratnapura 'gem' turns to Gold

Dinesh Weerawansa

SA GAMES: There was a time when less attention was paid to field events in Sri Lanka athletics. There was a reason for that too. It was our sprinters who have been dominating at most of the key events.

But that trend seems to be fading away gradually as our field athletes have had their own share of medals at the recently concluded 10th South Asian Games.

There was an unknown schoolgirl from Ehaliyagoda who stole the limelight at a Sri Lanka national championship in mid 90s. Two of our celebrated former sprinters turned coaches - Sunil and Badra Gunawardena spotted the raw talent of this unknown schoolgirl and found her shade at Track Masters Sports Club, which was a newly formed club at that time.

Ever since, this shot putter showed a marked improvement and was a key member of Track Masters SC. She is none other than that 'athletic gem' - Padma Nandani Wijesundara, who has been representing the country at various meets since 1991. She rewrote Sri Lanka athletics' discus throw history by winning the gold medal of her pet event at the 10th South Asian Games.

She threw a career best 47.50m to secure the gold medal, much to the delight of home supporters. Her feat easily bettered her Sri Lanka national record of 43.90m established in 2000. Wijesundara had a convincing win at the end while her closest rivals from India - Saroj Sihag (45.67) and Priyanka Bhanot (43.29) settled for the silver and bronze medals.

The talented lass from Sabaragamuwa is probably the best female discus thrower that Sri Lanka has ever produced. Prior to Wijesundara's feat, it was Deepika Rodrigo who dominated in both discus and shot putt events. In fact, Rodrigo won bronze medals in both these events at the 5th SA Games in Colombo, 1991 and went on to win shot putt bronze once more at the 6th SA Games in Dhaka.

She won the bronze medal at the 7th SA Games in Madras in 1995 throwing a distance of 42.16m. Indian Nimal J. Singh won the gold with 50.96m while her team mate Suranjit Kaur (47.38) won the silver.

Women's discus throw was not included as an event at the 8th SA Games in Nepal, 1999.

But at the next Games, she once again accounted for the bronze. At the previous 9th SA Games in Islamabad, Wijesundara secured the bronze medal with a throw of 42.31 when Indians Seema Antil (57.03) and C. Krishna (49.17) accounted for the gold and silver medals respectively.

Wijesundara said the gold medal she won at the eight-nation Games was a reward for her sacrifice and dedication for over a decade. "It was not an easy task, to make a lot of sacrifices and devote more time on training," she said.

But the 34-year-old veteran woman athlete feels that attention given in Sri Lanka for field events is inadequate. "The attention given to field events is not enough. I would like to appeal to authorities to pay more attention to field events. That would encourage and inspire us to do even better," she said.

She works as the Physical Training Instructress at Ferguson High School, Ratnapura but balances her professional and sports careers. Despite being content to stay on with only two bronze medals in successive SA Games, Wijesundara never gave up her ambition of winning a gold.

But she had expected a greater challenge from her rival competitors. "I thought there would be a greater challenge from Indian and Pakistani competitors. But at the end, I was able to make it without any significant resistance," she said. Wijesundara has been training all alone under the watchful eyes of P.B. Balitha, who has been her coach from early days.

Wijesundara said she was even more delighted that her golden effort came before the home crowd. "It came at the right time. I am really happy that I was able to achieve this feat before the sports loving public of this country, my parents and family members," she continued.

Now that she has fulfilled that ambition, the champion discus thrower is looking forward to extend her dominance beyond the South Asian level. "I think I have some more to offer for Sri Lanka athletics.

My next target is the Doha Asian Games in December. It will be a tough challenge but I am equally focused on my task.

My aim is to win a medal at Asian Games," a determined Wijesundara concluded.