Subashini on the threshold of becoming a world class athlete

Chris Dhambarage

At the age of 15 she shattered the national record and two years later she went on to represent the country in an international meet for the first time.

Now after eight years of hard work and training Chandrika Subashini Rasnayake is on the threshold of becoming a world class athlete. The twenty two year old lass from the remote area of Rasnayakapura in Nikaweratiya has already shown glimpse of fulfilling her childhood dream of competing among the world's elite athletes with some encouraging performances in the recent past.

Individual events

The upcoming 11th South Asian Games in Dhaka, Bangladesh could probably be the ideal stepping stone for Chandrika to relaunch her career ahead of a busy international schedule for 2010.

She will be the cynosure of all eyes and will be aiming for a hattrick of gold medals when she competes in the women's 200 metres, 400 metres and 4X400 metres relay events. In fact her presence at this meet has a great amount of significance because this is the first time that she is participating in all individual events at the South Asian Games.

At the 2006 South Asian Games in Colombo she was not considered for selection due to unknown reasons and her presence was restricted to the relay event. However she has been able to clear all hurdles and setbacks in her own style and has emerged as Sri Lanka's brightest prospect for an Olympic Gold medal.

Golden opportunity

Incidentally she narrowly missed out on a golden opportunity of competing at last year's Olympics in China when she failed to reach the qualified standard of timing by a mere one point.

Chandrika was able to return a good timing of 52.36 seconds at the Asian Grand Prix meet in China but yet she fell down in tears and returned home disappointedly having somewhat let down her long standing coaches Sunil Gunawardena and Badra Gunawardena.

But she was not prepared to be carried away through emotions and thereafter continued her usual training sessions at the Sugathadasa Stadium and the Sports Ministry ground in Torrington Avenue while keeping herself in a sound frame of mind.

Successful combination

She believed that a strong mind and pure concentration on the event was important as her physique and skills that has formed a very successful combination on the track.

Chandrika of course had all the ingredients and the back up support from her school days to become a star athlete. Her mother Seela Samarasinghe was certainly the biggest influence that laid the foundation at the beginning for a successful career. Samarasinghe as a Physical Training Instructor of Senanayake MV, Madampe made certain that her eldest daughter in a family of three took the right path and moved in the correct direction towards achieving the ultimate goal of representing the country in an International meet. She kept to that promise much sooner than expected and had the honour of representing the country at the Asian Junior Athletic Championships in Thailand in 2002 at the age of 17.

She went on to win her first international medal when she was placed first in both the girls under 19, 100 metres and 200 metres events at the IPSF Games held in Korea in the same year.

But more than that her finest moment and the greatest satisfaction came in 2004 when she shattered Damayanthi Darsha's 400 metres national record with a fantastic effort of 56.98 seconds. In fact Darsha has been one of her idols from her school days and to overcome that record was simply outstanding.

Thereafter Chandrika was able to prove that this record breaking performance was not a fluke but a genuine effort as she went on to be crowned as the Best Athlete for four successive years from 2002 to 2006 at the National School Games.

Hattrick of victories

The feature in these performances was that except for the 2002 Games she was able to complete a hattrick of victories while winning the gold medals in the girls 100 metres, 200 metres and 400 metres.

Incidentally Chandrika started her career while competing in the sprint events namely the 75 metres and 100 metres at their Inter House Sports Meet.

Best Athletes award

But as she made steady progress she decided to switch into a more competitive event following the instructions of her school coach Parakrama Bandara.

She never looked back from there onwards and went on to extend her dominance in the senior track and field meets and National Sports Festivals. Not surprisingly she bagged the Best Athletes award at the Sri Lanka National Athletic Championships and also at the National Sports Festival.

She was rewarded for her perseverance and consistency with a place in the Sri Lanka squad for the 2008 Asian Grand Prix Series which was staged in Vietnam and China respectively. She was able to maintain a high standard despite tough opposition and finished with a silver and bronze medal.

Chandrika faced another stern test when she was up against some of the World's best at the inaugural Lusifonia Games held in Lisbon last year. She put up a magnificent performance to return her best ever timing in the 200 metres and followed up with a silver medal in the 400 metres event.

Suitable sponsor

The reward for that fine effort was an employment at Sri Lanka Air Force but she is still in search for a suitable sponsor to further enhance her career prospects. Nevertheless she had the opportunity and the great experience of participating at the prestigious World Championships in Germany last year.

For Chandrika more than the competition at this mega event the experience that she obtained was something which she would always cherish where she had the privilege of meeting two World champions Husain Bolt and Sanya Richards at the same time.