End of an Era
High jumper Manjula Kumara Wijesekera has done for athletics what Kumar Sangakkara has done for cricket. He has performed consistently for 18 long years, conquering many frontiers Sri Lanka struggled with in the past. But there have been no guards of honour, no fireworks, no fanfare or no VIP. Only a handful of athletes and coaches for a man who is now bowing out from a sport he silently served.
On Wednesday, Manjula retired from athletics, leaving behind an untainted legacy that would be hard to match. It’s a career with staggering statistics. He took high jumping into new levels, becoming only the second Sri Lankan behind his mentor Nagalingam Ethirveerasingam to win medals beyond the South Asian region.
Since winning his first medal at the all island level as an underprivileged young kid in 1994 with a height of 1.27 metres, Manjula improved his personal performance in ten years by a metre. Yet, he hangs up his boots in disappointment–a sentiment most Sri Lankan sportsmen and women barring cricketers are familiar with. They have given the best years of their lives to flying the lion flag but receive no recognition.
Athletics is not a professional sport in Sri Lanka and if not for Army, Navy and Air Force, it may have died a natural death years ago as Government and private sector support dwindled despite great potential to bring the country medals on the regional and world stage.
But Manjula has not bitter like Lasith Malinga, the millionaire cricketer who lashed out at his critics in his ODI farewell speech. At a hastily-arranged press conference on Wednesday, just two days before he left for Australia to continue higher studies in Sports Management, Manjula said he was grateful for his blessings, and for the wonderful people who had moulded his career. He expressed no resentment, despite having reasons to feel resentful.
“It was a tough decision,” the 35-year-old jumper said. “Having spent more than half of my life for athletics, it was definitely a tough decision but I need to move on now and build a life for me and my family. I am grateful for the wonderful opportunities I had to represent my country over a very long period of time and, if not for all those people around me, I would never have achieved what I achieved. Thank you.”
He then read out a long list of people including his parents, siblings, his coaches–from Keerthi Kumara to Nagalingam Ehirveerasingam. He showed he hadn’t forgotten his roots, expressing gratitude to everyone, including those who came to support him at meets.
Born into a family of six, Manjula rode rough seas throughout his career. He now wants to build a life for himself and his wife Anjula Bandara. “I can still remember stepping onto the Sugathadasa Stadium track, barefoot, wearing my blue school short and skinny,” said the Olympian, whose mother, a tea plucker, was the sole breadwinner. “I did not have shoes or a kit to wear and my parents couldn’t afford it either. They didn’t even have money to take me to Colombo to compete. That’s when the Principal of my first school and her husband took me to the competition.”
Following his first medal–a silver at the all-island meet–Manjula moved to Dickwella Vijitha Central where the foundation for his impressive career was laid. But it was former Olympian Nagalingam Ethirveerasingam who changed Manjula’s life forever. Ethirveerasingam, a gold medalist at the 1962 Asian Games, facilitated Manjula’s journey to USA for training and for a degree in Economics.
“Meeting Ethirveerasingam Sir was the turning point of my life,” he related.
“At that age, I had no idea who he was, but he had seen my performance in a newspaper and written to my school. I did not understand what he had written and my school Principal and English teacher prepared and sent a reply to him. Since then, he was my second father.”
Manjula has won two Gold medals (Asian Championship 2005 and 2009), and represented Sri Lanka at the 2004 Athens Olympic Games, 2005 World Championship, four Asian Games (2002, 2006, 2010 and 2014) and at two Commonwealth Games.
He is the last remaining athlete from a golden era of Sri Lankan athletics. Though he entered the scene much later than Susanthika Jayasinghe, Damayanthi Darsha, Sugath Tillekeratne, Sriyani Kulawansa, Rohan Pradeep Kumara and Prasanna Amarasekera (all champions sprinters), Manjula was on par with them in his performance.
His jump of 2.27 m remains a Sri Lankan record to date. He might be replaced by someone but there will never be another Manjula Kumara, a man who showed great humility in serving his country for nearly two decades.