Sprinter on the run

Whether or not Susanthika’s allegations of sexual harassment are true, this is the belittling reaction that the world silver medalist and Sri Lanka’s best athlete — it’s best chance at the Sydney Olympics — received when she told the country a few days ago that she had stopped training completely since August due to the relentless pursuit of her by a top functionary of the sports ministry. According to her, this functionary is coercing her into leaving her husband. Susanthika has said she fears for her husband’s life and for her own.

Notwithstanding Samaraweera’s remarks which, despite his denials, smack of deep racist and sexist prejudices, Sri Lanka’s sprint queen has let it be known that village girl she may be, but she will not be cowed down or back off from her allegations, even in the face of such crass remarks. Putting her future as a world-class athlete on the line, she has refused to go back to training unless her grievances are redressed.

These include the return of her husband’s passport — impounded by a court for his alleged involvement in a 1993 murder — so that he can accompany her on her trips abroad. And the fulfilment of various government promises of rewards to her, if indeed they were not tied to sexual favours in the first place.

For a 21-year-old woman from a poor family in rural Sri Lanka, to take on the establishment, possibly at the cost of her career, is not an easy task. Especially in a country where private sponsorship of sportsmen and sportswomen is still in its early days and the Government remains the chief patron for much sporting activity. But Susanthika is no longer the under-confident, wide-eyed child she was when she first arrived in Colombo from her village 75 km away in Kegalle. And this is also not the first time that she has been in the eye of the storm.

Susanthika, whose talent was first noticed five years ago by an army officer watching a school sports meet, has so far weathered every controversy that has come her way, not allowing her performance to be affected. Early on in her career, she was nearly banned by the International Amateur Athletics Federation (IAAF) after a dope test on her — which later proved erroneous showed positive.

In April this year, the Sri Lanka government first imposed, and after a public outcry, withdrew a six-month ban on her for getting drunk at a hi-jinks party in the hostel where she lived with her team-mates. Had the disciplinary proceedings against her not been withdrawn, she would not have been in the squad that went to the World Athletics meet at Athens in August, and Sri Lankans would have been deprived the pride of witnessing one of their own leave behind Jamaican Merlene Ottey, the pre-event favourite, to finish the 200 mt sprint in 22.39 seconds and take the silver.

Susanthika returned home from Athens to a tumultuous welcome. Admiring fans lined the route from the airport five or six deep and prevented her vehicle from moving more than a few metres at a time. For a girl who joined the army as a volunteer recruit at 17 so that she could have a roof over her head and get three meals a day while she practised on proper tracks in Colombo, that August day in Athens was the high-point of her career.

In normal circumstances, that should have also provided the take-off into preparations for the 2000 Olympics and a host of other international meets in between, including the Commonwealth Games next year. Unfortunately, according to her, the four months since her triumphant return from Athens have also been the most traumatic of her life.

First, it was discovered that as she had stopped living at the Army barracks which had provided her accommodation and, therefore, had not been signing the register there, she was technically a deserter, which is a serious offence in Sri Lanka. The situation was rectified after the Army gave her a Services No Longer Required certificate.

Then, it was the revelation that she has been secretly married these last three years and the subsequent allegations of sexual harassment. Whatever the case may be, the fact is that she is no longer training, and that does not bode well for Sri Lanka in Sydney.

But does Sri Lanka care? In spite of the fact that the country is short on national heros, not many — barring a couple of newspapers — think that Susanthika’s travails, imagined or otherwise, are a national issue which has to be dealt with before her performance is affected to a point of no return. The intemperate remarks of politicians who, with their own peculiar standards of measuring human achievement, think it is possible for a deranged and hallucinating woman to attain a state of mind that enables her body to run 200 mt in a fraction of a minute, are only worsening the situation.

“Politicians like Mangala Samaraweera come and go, but athletes of Susanthika ‘s potential are not a frequent occurrence in a small country like Sri Lanka,” said Lasantha Wickremetunga, editor of the weekly Sunday Leader, which published the first interview with the sprinter.

However, in a country dominated by over-achieving cricketers, most newspapers think Susanthika’s run-in with the government is an issue for feminists, and therefore, to be reported tongue-in-cheek. Sadly, even women’s organisations seem not to carea promised signature campaign by one group against Samaraweera’s comments has yet to take off.

There is some speculation that if her problems are not sorted out soon, Susanthika may take wing to a foreign country in order to continue her training. Fortunately for Sri Lanka, the star athlete has ruled out running for any other country except her own. In a television interview on Friday, she said her main ambition was to hear the Sri Lanka national anthem in the stadium at Sydney. So here’s wishing her luck.