Lankan minister brands Susanthika as deranged

He further said that a debate on the issue was an insult to Parliament because the allegations had been made by a mentally deranged woman.” At a press conference earlier on the same day, the minister had described her accusations as “the hallucinations of a deranged mind.”

Susanthika won a silver medal at the World Athletics Meet at Athens in August and is the country’s best hope for a medal at the 2000 Games at Sydney. Her silver in the 200m defeating Jamaican Merlene Ottey was not the first time she brought laurels to Sri Lanka. She had won gold at the Hiroshima Asiad in 1994 and at the SAF games in Madras in 1995.

However, ever since her returned from Athens, she has been in the centre of controversies. First, newspapers revealed that she was an army deserter. Then, she disclosed to a Sinhalese newspaper that she had been married secretly for the last three years.

Next, she told another newspaper that senior sports officials were demanding sexual favours from her and wanted her to divorce her husband. Ever since the controversies began, Susanthika has stopped training, which could adversely affect her chances at the Olympics.

“It is unfortunate that instead of looking into her grievance, a person as responsible as a minister should be saying these things about a woman who has brought honour to her country,” a member of Susanthika’s inner circle said.

Sports lovers are indignant that Samaraweera could get away with such a statement in Parliament. `Moving the adjournment debate, opposition members said Susanthika was a national asset and a potential medallist at the next Olympic Games. Sports minister SB Dissanayake, whose protege she was seen as till recently, assured Parliament that he would look into her complaints. However, he suggested that Susanthika had grown too big for her boots.

“Young women athletes whose minds act too fast have lost their careers as bright athletes as history reveals,” he said during the debate.