Year end review:

Prasanna and Susanthika stole the limelight in 2009

Chris Dhambarage

The Lahore terror attack on the Sri Lankan cricket team stunned the entire World as the game came to a virtual standstill in the region. The horrifying attack which took place on March 3 injured seven Sri Lankans and eight locals as security dominated the agenda for the rest of the year.

But yet bodybuilder Prasanna Peiris and star sprinter Susanthika Jayasinghe were equal to the task as they stamped their class before the curtain came down for

another eventful sporting year.

The performance of Prasanna Peiris was certainly an extra ordinary one where he snatched the silver medal at the World championships in Doha, Qatar against heavy odds.

There was further ecstasy for celebrated sprint queen Susanthika Jayasinghe when her performance at the Sydney Olympic Games was elevated to a silver medal by the World Governing Body. In the year 2000 she became the nation’s first Olympic Games medalist since 1948, when she finished behind Marion Jones and Pauline Davis-Thompson in the Women’s 200 metres.

A On October 5, 2007 Marion Jones admitted to having been taking performance enhancing drugs prior to the 2000 Summer Olympics Games and Susanthika Jayasinghe was elevated to silver medal status. The result may have come rather late at a time when she had already retired from the sport but still a remarkable effort that will be remembered for a long time.

The success of Prasanna Peiris is of course a rare piece of achievement and probably the best ever effort from a bodybuilder in the recent past.

His effort was even more significant considering the fact that he took up the challenge to compete at the World championships at the back drop of some uncertainty. The 40 year old former Sailor was forced to find employment in overseas in sheer disappointment and with the aim of providing a better future for his family. While working as a Physical Fitness Instructor in Qatar he found the environment and the set up quite friendly to relaunch his bodybuilding career. He got his act together well and worked on his basics on a daily routine that put him in the correct path for a World class performance.

The final result and his ultimate goal was a silver medal in the 65 kg bantam weight category event out of competitors from 90 countries.

Meanwhile the Sri Lanka cricket team under new captain Kumar Sangakkara bounced back magnificently to emerge runners up to Pakistan at the second edition of the International Cricket Council (ICC) Twenty20 World Cup staged in England. In the longer version of the game Sri Lanka achieved their best rankings when they reached the number two position for the first time since obtaining ICC Test status. This was a tremendous achievement considering the fact that the country had limited opportunities against some of the top Test playing nations.

Among the outstanding individuals Tillekeratne Dilshan was able to produce a World class batting performance in all forms of the game. He brought a new dimension into Twenty20 cricket and thrilled the cricketing World with his innovative style of batting. However on a few occasions he had to be on the losing side as the team struggled to maintain their consistency both at home and overseas. Their latest debacle was the two nil defeat at the hands of India in the recently concluded Test series. Sri Lanka of course started the series with great hope and with the intention of achieving the number one position in the ICC Rankings. But they found the atmosphere, conditions and the opposition much difficult than they anticipated which eventually caused their downfall.

Earlier Sri Lanka began the year on a promising note while recording back to back home Test series victories over Pakistan and New Zealand respectively. But their one day form dropped to an alarming level and also lost a home Tri Series final against India. In contrast the Sri Lanka Under-19 team had an excellent run of success both here and abroad as they make their final preparations ahead of the more important International Cricket Council Youth World Cup in New Zealand. Their greatest achievement was the 3-2 youth one day series victory in Australia which also marked the first ever series triumph by any cricket team down under.

Under the guidance of Coach Naveed Nawaz and inspired by the services of former batting legend and Consultant Coach Aravinda de Silva the youngsters also clinched a Tri Nation limited overs series that featured Pakistan and Bangladesh at home.

More than the victories and the success the striking feature has been the manner in which they have handled the pressure and different match situations unlike their senior team members.

Meanwhile soldier Chaminda Wijekoon lived upto expectations as a promising athlete when he created history with a gold medal in the men’s 1,500 metres event at the Lusafonia Games held in Lisbon this year. In the boxing ring women boxers came into recognition with Nilmini Jayasinghe winning a gold medal at the World championships in Petersburg, Russia. This was followed by another pleasing effort from Anusha Kodituwakku who bagged a bronze medal at the Women’s Indoor Games held in Hanoi, Vietnam.

The sportsmen and sportswomen of Sri Lanka Navy Sports Club also contributed a great amount towards maintaining Sri Lanka’s image as a popular sporting nation in the region as three of their competitors clinched two silver and one bronze medal at the Commonwealth Games Weightlifting Championships staged in Malaysia.

The Sri Lanka netball team also brought glory to the country by winning the Asian championships with a spectacular performance in Malaysia.

Their success had a great amount of significance considering the fact that the last time they won this event was way back in 2002.