Lakshman's loss created a huge gap

Chris Dhambarage

The untimely death of national coach Lakshman de Alwis has certainly created a huge vacuum in the athletic scene. His life was snatched away by a cruel LTTE suicide cadre while officiating at a regional marathon at Weliweriya in the Gampaha District.

Sixty nine year old Lucky as he was affectionately known was a coach cum administrator who dedicated his entire life to the promotion and development of athletics in the country.

He was a person who even ignored personal glory but was more interested in the well being of the national athletes and their difficulties. In fact he had been invited for a felicitation ceremony organized by his hometown Maharagama on that fateful day he bid farewell to the nation.

But Lakshman felt that the marathon organized by his friend K. A. Karunaratne was more important as he set about early on that dreadful Sunday morning to make his presence felt in this inaugural event conducted by Adhishtana Sports Club in Weliweriya.

He of course left his residence with a promise that he would return back in the evening for the felicitation ceremony which was to be held at the National Youth Services Centre (NYSC) in Maharagama.

His wife Dhammika however did not even imagine that his husband would never return back and that those were the last few words of a beloved father of three children.

The gentle voice of Lakshman de Alwis is no more as he was a victim of a bomb explosion that also took the life of Minister Jeyaraj Fernandopulle.

The last words and the deeds of De Alwis was all about athletics, a sport which he loved and cared so much from his schooldays.

He was a person who reached the top with a lot of difficulties and a number of setbacks while going through a series of hardships as an athlete, coach and administrator.

His entry into the athletic scene was also a kind of a revolution where he made a stunning impact in his debut while representing Moratu Vidyalaya. Those were the days where athletics was dominated by the so called elite Colombo schools.

However an unknown athlete from Moratu Vidyalaya completely changed the sport in this country while ending the reign of supremacy of the more privileged Colombo schools athletes. The year 1958 will be remembered for two reasons, first for the communal riots and second for the arrival of a new athletic champion named Lakshman de Alwis.

It was during the same period that De Alwis began to blossom into a promising athlete by winning both sprint events at the Junior National track and field championships held at the Police Park.

He kept to that promise and lived upto expectations by winning his two pet events quite convincingly in all major events thereafter. In fact he was unbeaten in the men's 200 metres event from 1962 until 1965 at the Ceylon Nationals.

De Alwis soon began to earn more recognition and was a member of the national pool formed in 1964 in preparation for the Tokyo Olympic Games. Thereafter he joined Sri Lanka Air Force and continued to excel in the sport with a great amount of commitment and determination.

Lakshman joined the Sports Ministry in 1967 and rose up to the post of Assistant Director of Sports while performing a lot of development work for the athletes during his tenure of office.

In fact he has produced many national athletes during the past four decades including Asian Games gold medallist S. L. B. Rosa, Sunil Gunawardena and former sprint queen K. G. Badra Gunawardena.

De Alwis coached Isipatana College to win the Public Schools championships in 1970 and 1971. The three athletes in that team namely H. W. Nimalsiri, N. A. T. Jayasinghe and G. L. S. Perera are currently working in the athletic administration.

He shifted to Dehiwela MMV in 1972 and guided them to win the Public Schools title in that same year.

He was also a founder member of the Ceylonese Track and Field Club (CT and FC) in and the team comprising of P. B. Wijesinghe, Lakshman de Alwis, Melvin Mallawarachchi and Nimal Fernando running in that order created a major upset by overcoming the strong Ace Athletic team for the first time at the Government Services championships.