The term ‘and they lived happily ever after’ should be taken off from the story books forthwith. I feel that the ‘more feel good’ stories we have in our midst the more we tend to lose our focus. We have just witnessed one of our main fortresses in the field of sport just being razed to the ground. But funnily we kept looking on cocooned in that ‘feel good’ thing without caring what would happen next. Now Lankan athletics may be dead as the ‘Dodo’ bird.
Lingering upon that low feeling I just wanted to know where we went wrong and how did this happen. The light dawn on me, and I contacted one of the people who was behind taking Sri Lanka to its ‘golden age in athletics’ which lasted almost for one-and-half decades. He is none other than Sunil Jayaweera an athlete and an athletic administrator who was once the main cog in the wheel of fortune in athletics.
I remember there was one era that the machine coughed out athletes at a hectic pace. There were Dhammika Menike’s, Damayanthi Dharsha’s, Susanthika Jayasinghe’s, Prasanna Amerasekera’s, Sriyantha Dissanayake’s and Sriyani Kulavansa’s -- all Asian and world standard performers popping out on a regular basis. So much so Sri Lanka became a track and field power-house in the South Asian region. When that happens doesn’t that ‘feel good’ sensation overlap your good judgement gradually but very firmly.
So let’s invite Mr. Jayaweera to take us back down the track. Sunil Jayaweera started by explaining on how Sri Lanka was producing good athletes even prior to his time. He said at that time S.L.B. Rosa, W. Wimaladasa two of the athletes that put this tiny island nation on the map. Wimaladasa to his knowledge was ranked 8th in his discipline (400metre sprint) while Rosa won the third place in the Boston marathon. He said “Sri Lankan athletics was on par with the Asian Athletic standards till about the period of 1974. We were good at the 10,000 and 5000metres, relay and sprint events and we used to win medals at the Asian Games. Besides that Nagalingam Ethirweerasingham won medals in the high jump at the Asian Games setting new marks. I remember Wimaladasa set a new 400 metre mark in the Asian games in 1974 while the 4 x 100 relay team that comprised Sunil Gunawardena, A. Premachandra, Kosala Sahabandu and Bandula Jayasinghe also set up a new mark. Thereafter our performances declined and till the early 90s our cupboard became bare.”
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| Sunil Jayaweera |
Jayaweera sees this too as a loss of focus on athletics by the then government in power. He sights that in 1976 the then government and the Olympic Committee in connivance decided to send only a flag bearer to the Munich Olympics. Jayaweera says that this was in spite of Wimaladasa being the best 400 metre sprinter in the Asian region and about the 4th ranked in the World. Besides that Rosa also had become the third in the Boston Marathon. This he sites as a huge faux-pax as the budding athletes in that era lost heart. The result he says was the contingent that was sent to the 1982 Asian Games came back home empty handed.
According to Jayaweera the chance came his way when the then Education Minister Ranil Wickremesinghe seeing an urgent need for a change invited him to take over as the Director of Sports at the Ministry of Education way back in 1983. He says there was a ten member team in that and their first act was the formulation of a sports plan in schools with a view to uplift the games within a period of twelve years. A direct result of that was the launching of the National School Games in 1984.
Thereafter the ministry saw to it that girls and boys who won the first three places at senior level at the National School Games were given employment in the ministry of Education as PTIs. By the year 1990 the Ministry of Education had employed 2000 such athletes as PTIs. To make this move a reality sometimes they had to bend some standing rules that prevailed at that time to accommodate such athletes because they did not have the full requirements of qualifications, but as they were going to be in charge of a different sphere in the child’s growth they were accommodated. This was followed by the formation of the College of Physical Education (For teachers) at Bandarawela and this culminated in the formation of twenty four National Sports Schools such as Walala Central, Ibbagamuwa Central etc in every district. However in 1990 the College of Physical Education was converted into the Uva College of Education by then minister of Education WJM Lokubandara and thus the school lost its focus.
Jayaweera also added “There was another very salient point. Generally even a PTI has to work to the normal school clock. We changed it. We allowed them to leave the school at 11 a.m. and come back to the grounds by 3 p.m. in their track kits and the hours that they put in at the ground were also counted as normal duty hours. This was a huge inspiration to them.
“At the same time we also made the National School Games the most prestigious sporting event in the calendar. At that time it was the Public Schools’ Athletic Meet that prevailed. However it catered only to a few elite schools. So we stopped the public Schools’ Athletic meet for two years and made way for the National School Athletic Association that overlooked athletics in all schools. To back this we had about 12,000 PTIs from every nook and cranny of the island and all of them were genuinely interested in making a difference. Another move that we made was to give more recognition to children with a sports background when it came to University Entrance. We did this in conjunction with the University Grants Commission. We even mooted such a programme with the department of Public Administration” Jayaweera said.
Their next move was the formation of the Schools’ Sports Council that covered 24 sports. This brought almost all sports that prevailed in schools under one umbrella. “For instance then schools rugby was run by the union, but it was I who brought rugby under the Education Ministry purview with the formation of the Schools’ Rugby Association. These moves paid their own dividends. We then could see the childrens and teachers changing their attitude towards sports as they saw the doors opening for sports people who come out from schools” Jayaweera added.
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Then Jayaweera spoke highly about the role played by S.B. Dissanayake when he was the minister. He said it was Dissanayake who got the private sector involved in employing good athletes. “What we did was to produce the young athletes and hand them over to the Sports Ministry and they took upon themselves the challenge from that point onwards.” said the doyen of schools sports.
Jayaweera says that it is very ironic that the subsequent sports ministers and education ministers have changed their attitude towards these foundations that were laid by them. He points out that now the National Schools Games have lost its glitter and children do not see anything beyond the participation at these games. This he shows as a direct cause of Sri Lanka weaning in the production of quality athletes. He also charges that putting up grounds in different locations is not going to help Sri Lanka to produce a new breed of international class athletes. He says first the authorities must go back and see where they lost their focus and make a genuine effort to bridge the gap.
He says “Pasting plasters that also in a very ad hoc manner will not bring the desired results. Be genuine and do the right thing if not we will not find the Susanthika’s and the Dharsha’s again”.
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