Gallage Peiris – the self-made athlete who brought fame to the country

Gallage Peiris

Gallage Diamond Peiris, who participated in the long jump and triple jump events at the 1948 London Olympic Games, was born on January 17, 1918 in Mount Lavinia.

He received his primary education at Prince of Wales College, Moratuwa. Although he was keen in sports, lack of facilities prevented him from getting involved in the sport at competitive level.

However, Peiris developed an interest in sports and got himself involved in athletics after having keenly followed the performances of Asian competitors at the 1936 Berlin Olympic Games.

He built for himself a jumping pit in his own garden and started practising. He made a successful start to his career at National level in 1938, still as a schoolboy when he bagged the triple jump event and was placed third in the long jump.

He never looked back from there onwards and went on to win the first place in the long jump event in 1939 while clearing a distance of 21 feet and four inches and also was placed second in the triple jump.

In 1940, Peiris produced one of his best performances when he established a new Ceylon record in the triple jump while clearing a distance of 45 feet and three inches at the National Athletics Championships.

He produced another splendid performance at the 1940 Indo Ceylon Athletics Meet when he improved on the Ceylon record while clearing a distance of 45 feet and 11 ½ inches despite finishing third.

Thereafter, in 1942 Peiris came first in the triple jump clearing 45 feet and 11 1/8 inches at the National Athletics Meet. In 1945, he completed a grand double when he clinched both the triple jump and the long jump events.

At the 1946 Indo-Ceylon Athletics Meet held in Bangalore, Peiris won the long jump and was placed second in the triple jump event.

Peiris turned out to be an automatic choice for the London Olympic Games when he made a clean sweep while winning all three events at the Selection Trials.

At these trials, he was able to set up a new Ceylon record in the triple jump event while clearing 46 feet and 9 ¾ inches. Later, he went on to improve this record to 47 feet and 2 ½ inches. Peiris performed well to clear the long jump by 24 feet and the triple jump by 47 feet at the London Olympic Games but these efforts were not good enough to progress into the next round.

After the Olympic Games, he continued to work hard towards achieving excellence but a knee injury forced him to compete only in the triple jump in 1949 and subsequently he retired from sports in 1952.