Sussie in line for silver and gold

By S.R. Pathiravithana

Sri Lanka’s sprint queen Susanthika Jayasinghe is in line for an Olympic ‘silver’ and a ‘gold’ for her performance at the World Athletic championships in Athens, Greece, seven years ago. In both cases it was Marion Jones who took the first place in the 200 metres women’s sprint event.

With American sprinter Marion Jones admitting the usage of steroids during her triumphant 2000 Olympic campaign in Sydney Australia, the shamed athlete is due to be stripped off her medals.

Commenting on the issue the secretary of the Sri Lanka Amateur Athletic Association Prema Pinnawela said “The normal procedure is that once an athlete is found guilty of using banned substances he/she is stripped of all their accolades and the medals withdrawn and given to the persons who finished the events after her on merit.

“However it is too early to comment on it. It is the IAAF which has to take the initiative. The IAAF is due to meet next in Monaco on November 23 and you can be more than sure the papers regarding this development will be taken at this meeting and a decision taken after they give a hearing to the US Olympic Committee. Thereafter the IAAF will direct the IOC to take its own steps on events organized by it while the IAAF will take a decision on the events organized by it”.

At the Sydney Olympics in 200 the Women's 200-Meters: results read -- 1. Marion Jones (United States) 21.84, 2. Pauline Davis-Thompson (Bahamas), 3. Susanthika Jayasinghe (Sri Lanka).