And
the next contestant is…?
By
S.R. Pathiravithana
Amidst all panjandrums and the bluer skies tomorrow promised in
the Athletic sphere it seems that all’s not well. It was clearly
depicted when a lone ranger in the track and field events popped
out in Prasanna Amerasekera to qualify for the forthcoming World
Championships at the recently held trials at the Sugathadasa Stadium.
Ironically,
the Tillekeratnes, Dharshas, Rohan Pradeeps and so on fell by the
wayside not being able to make the grade. Generally it was the trio
of Susanthika Jayasinghe, Damayanthi Dharsha and Sriyani Kulawansa
who made their globe trotting from one championship to the other
may be along with the 4-x400 relay team. However by this time Kulawansa
has called it a day, Jayasinghe has decided to go back to the drawing-board
in the United States of America while Dharsha failed to make the
expected impact in her pet 400-metre event.
The
poser is: What led our athletics to this situation? Is it that athletes
are getting involved with politics along with their coaches or the
coaches getting involved with politics along with their athletes?
In either manner little time is left for them to concentrate on
their main objective. Now the results are shown on the board.
At
the same time another dangerous situation has arisen. In the first
trial while the incumbent seniors were performing well below par,
there were no juniors coming out and running them down into the
oblivion. The only performer – Prasanna Amerasekera too is
a known horse who has had his own ups and downs at the derby.
To
get a better insight of the prevailing problem the Sunday Musings
sought the assistance of the incumbent vice president of the Amateur
Athletic Association of Sri Lanka and its immediate Past President
Sunil Jayaweera.
The
experienced administrator was not overly concerned about the prevailing
situation he said, “Even before this it was only Susanthika,
Sriyani Kulawansa, Damayanthi Dharsha and the 4-x400 contingent
who generally represented Sri Lanka at the World Championships.
This time instead of them we have High Jumper Manjula Kumara who
has qualified in the United States, Anuradha Indrajith Cooray who
has qualified in the marathon along with Prasanna Amerasekera. Along
with them the 4-x400 team may also qualify”.
But,
may be he did not realize that it is only Amerasekera who has already
reserved his berth at the World Championships in the track and field
events in which Sri Lanka has done so well over the years, and at
the same time Prasanna Amerasekera is no Susanthika Jayasinghe.
(I wish I may be proved wrong at the end).
Giving
more insight into the whole episode was the secretary of the AAA
Prema Pinnawela. His contention was that the doors were still not
closed for the local athletes to qualify for the World Championships.
Pinnawela explained “In the 4-x400 event we have a slight
problem in the final quartet especially among Prasanna Amerasekera
and Rohan Pradeep. However the other athletes, Sugath Tillekeratne,
Ranga Wimalawansa Rohitha Pushpakumara and Manoj Pushpakumara are
there as backup athletes and they could make the expected grade.
The expected timing is 3 minutes 04 seconds and I think they can
go for that.”
The
AAA secretary further elaborated “The Athletics nationals
and the final trials will be worked off concurrently at the Sugathadasa
Stadium on 15,16 and 17 July. The main attraction at this meet will
be high jumper Manjula Kumara who will be coming back to Sri Lanka
especially to take part in this meet. Manjula has been doing 2.20
metres regularly in the United States while on training and we expect
him to touch 2.27 metres when he takes part here at the nationals.
At the same time we have planned to give the experienced hands a
double chance to qualify this year.
Now
Damayanthi Dharsha feels that she could do better if she reverts
to the 200 metres event rather than the 400metres that she is taking
part at present. So we have decided to give these type of veterans
a chance of competing in the Junior Nationals which will take place
from 8th to the 10th of July prior to taking part in the senior
nationals from the 15th to the 17th. This chance may help them to
better their timings at competitive level. However they will be
afforded this chance only if the request comes through their respective
coaches”.
The
message is very clear. At present all the king’s horses and
all king’s men are working overtime to put Humpty back together
again. At the same the officials are talking about K.T.M. Harris
from Trincomalee (100 and 200) U.G. Wickremasinghe from Kandy (400
metres) and Lahiruni Peiris (High Jump) as promising stars for the
future. If at least these three athletes could have the same influence
that their immediate predecessors had at least in the Asian arena
we would should consider ouqselves lucky. And once again I wish
they could prove me very…very wrong. |