The school race that changed her life

“Susanthika has done the country and this particular village proud and for that reason, the people here are extremely proud of her,” said Mannanalage Jayasinghe, her father, a driver by profession. Youngest of the five children in her family, the 21-year-old Asian record holder is Uduwaka’s favourite child.

Her rise in international athletics is the stuff of fairy tales. In a sense, she and the other national hero, cricketer Sanath Jayasuriya are the same face of one coin both from rural Sri Lanka, and both from families with little means. They have both proved that talent is not the privilege of Colombo’s public school elite.

Susanthika went to the local primary school like all the other children in the village. She was always an outdoors person, showed no great interest in studies, but like the other children, went to a high school in the next village. Had it not been for one particular school sports day in which she ran the last lap in the 4x100m relay, Susanthika would have probably ended up working as cheap labour in one of the many garment factories in the area.

That was the race that changed the course of her life and proved that talent, irrespective of pedigree, cannot be suppressed. She was 16 then.Watching this with great interest was an army officer from a unit stationed in the area. He lost no time in asking her to her to join the army as soon as she finished school, telling her that they would train her as an athlete.

A few months later, Susanthika was signed up as a volunteer recruit and along with her duties as a peon, she began training in earnest and quickly rose to win the national athletics championships.

From there to a place in the national squad for the Hiroshima Asiad was a short jump. It was her first major international meet and much to the astonishment of Sri Lankans, she came back with a silver. In 1995, during a meet held in Indonesia, the International Amateur Athletics Federation almost banned her when she tested positive for dope. But Sri Lanka backed her claim that the test had shown a wrong result: the Amateur Athletics Federation here, the Sports ministry, politicians, officials, everybody rallied around and a team of doctors pitched in to help and proved to the Toytoa testing labs that there had been errors in the test. She was cleared.

Recently, the government banned her and six other “Olympic pool” athletes on disciplinary grounds for drinking beer and, according to the Sports Ministry, breaking some furniture in the premises of the government sports hostel where they have been given accommodation. It was only after a series of apologies from the athletes and a national outcry at the ban that the punishment was waived.

However, apart from that one occasion on which the government almost tripped her up, the Sports Ministry has treated her like a national treasure, paying her a stipend of Rs 50,000 a month — she left the army soon after Hiroshima to concentrate on athletes — and giving her a flat in Colombo. She has also been given a car and all her food expenses are taken care of by the ministry.

For her and Sri Lanka, the next goal is Sydney 2000.

Susanthika Jayasinghe factfile

Date of Birth: December 17, 1975.
Height: 160 CMS; Weight: 54 kg
Events: 100m and 200m. Coach: Davin Pereira
Personal bests: 100m: 11.18 seconds. 200m: 22.33 seconds
SAF Games, Dhaka ’93: Gold in 100m, 200m and 4x100m relay.
Asian Jr. Championship, Jakarta, Sept ’94: Silver in 100m; Gold in 200m.
Hiroshima Asian Games, Oct ’94: Bronze in 100m, Silver in 200m.
Asian Championships, Jakarta, Sept ’95: Silver medal in 100m 11.37 seconds;
Gold medal in 200m in 23.00s (a new Championship record).
SAF Games, Chennai, Dec ’95: Gold in 100m in 11.34s (new Championships
record); Gold in 200m in 22.95s (new Championships record); Gold in 4 x 100m in 44.74s (new Championships record).
Atlanta Olympic Games, July-Aug ’96: 11.18s (personal best) in first round and dropped out of second round due to injury.
World Championships, Aug ’97: Silver in 200m in 22.39 seconds.