Thread: Sri Lanka lacks new athletics talent?

Sri Lanka lacks new athletics talent?

By Saroj Pathirana
BBC Sinhala Service






Sri Lanka’s only hope at the Beijing Olympics, Susanthika Jayasinghe, failed to qualify for the women’s 200m finals.
The bronze medal winner at the 2000 Sydney Olympics who finished with 22.28 seconds only managed to reach 200m semi-finals in Beijing.

She was the seventh, recording 22.94 seconds, at the semi-finals held on 20 August.

It is expected that Beijing is Jayasinghe’s last Olympic tournament as her many contemporaries including Damayanthi Darsha, Sriyani Kulawansa and Sugath Thilakaratne have already called the day.

New talent

Many sports pandits agree that Sri Lanka has failed to produce new talents in the synthetic track.

But is Sri Lanka short of new talent?

“No�, says the former Director of Sri Lanka Sports Academy.




“Jayasinghe and others were the products of a systematic five-year training project,� Yogananda Wijesundara told BBC Sandeshaya.

“But since 2000, authorities were not bothered to follow it up with the new generation," he added.

Damayanthi Darsha who recently retired from sports, agrees.

Former sports minister SB Dissanayake was influential in making the project happen, she says.

“I think we need a new long-term training strategy to find and develop new talent,� Darsha told BBCSinhala.com.

London 2012

The sports authorities, however, deny any downturn in the athletics field.

Sports minister Gamini Lokuge says he is working on a new four-year plan leading to London 2012 Olympics.


Phelps created Olympics history by winning the most gold medals

“We are focusing on regional games, then Commonwealth games leading to other international events. For the first time ever, Sri Lanka this year even qualified for the Olympics in Badminton,� he said.

Sri Lanka’s first ever woman to compete in Olympics, Thilaka Jinadasa, says intensive training in school level might result in sportsmen lacking energy at the higher levels.

Lack of scientific approach from the beginning, she says, is one of the major concerns.

Scientific approach

“Children at very young age are forced to train long hours at school levels. This approach is wrong. A sportsman should only focus on his/her own field after the age of 15-16� Ms. Jinadasa said.

As the current generation has been successful in certain events, the emerging generation is only focusing on similar few events narrowing the focus, says Yogananda Wijesundara.

He also stressed the importance of a 'post-mortem' after every major tournament to investigate the successes and failures of the team and the management.


http://www.bbc.co.uk/sinhala/highlig...s_future.shtml

i myself is a good athlete ran 100m in game awrudu uthsawe got 1st place.....
But d sri lankan athletic association said not enough qualification to participate in international circuit .

so kept running for d awrudu uthsawe every year since den

Once I ran 100 meters with Carl Lewis and finished second..
Actually there were only me and him on the track.

[quote author=toshiba link=topic=20344.msg320888#msg320888 date=1220621378]
Once I ran 100 meters with Carl Lewis and finished second..
Actually there were only me and him on the track.
[/quote]

hope dey would have batta panima and banis kame tharagaya for London Olympics
den defa i'm gonna get gold from one of those two events

[quote author=skywalker link=topic=20344.msg320901#msg320901 date=1220647369]
hope dey would have batta panima and banis kame tharagaya for London Olympics
den defa i'm gonna get gold from one of those two events
[/quote]

He cheated with drugs so you really won! {hehe sorry that was Ben Johnson so you still came second, you should have raced Johnson}.

This is very sad.I m sure we have enough young fellows who can compete like Susanthika <Susi> Jayasinghe at international level.But Sadly the officials are not gonna do their part.I dont think we will be ever gonna make a olympic medal for Athletics again.