Narasinghe – an outstanding Sri Lankan veteran athlete-by Upananda Jayasundera

N. L. W. Narasinghe with his Trophies. Pic by Upananda Jayasundera, Kandy Sports Special Corr

N. L. W. Narasinghe is an outstanding veteran Sri Lankan athlete and an old boy of Koswatte Gamini Vidyalaya, Kalawana in the Ratnapura District.

He started his long standing athletics career at school when he won the 800m and 1500m races and became an outstanding athlete from his young days.

After his higher studies, he continued with athletics and he entered the University of Peradeniya in 1994 and passed out in 1997 and joined the Department of Education.

He participated at the annual staff sports meets for a number of years and won his pet events of 800m and 1500m races.

In 1985, the Veterans Athletics Association was formed and Narasinghe was selected as a member of the association and became the Best Athlete for seven consecutive years from 2007.

He won the 65/70 age group 800m, 1500m, 2,000m and 5,000m races with new meet records at the International Veterans Athletics Meet in 2002 and won the 5,000m and 2,000m races in the 60/65 age category.

Again, in 2006 he won the 5,000m race at the Asian Veterans Athletics Meet and in 2006 and 2012 he competed at the Asian Veterans Meet in Bangalore and Karnataka.

Thereafter, In Geelong, Australia in 2013 he won the 800m, 1500m, 2,000m and the 5,000m at the International Veterans Meet.

In 2020, he came second in the 5,000m and 2,000m in the 80/85 age groups in the meet held in Malaysia. While he was teaching at Galagedara Central College, he started coaching as he was a qualified athlete and a coach.

He has produced outstanding athletes of the calibre of D. Udugama, who won medals at the South Asian Games in India and W. D. Bogahalanda, who was awarded medals at the same event, which was held in Korea.

Narasinghe won the triple gold award for becoming the fittest person at the athletics meet organised by the ‘Shakthi Programme’ in 2011 and retired after 35 years of service in 1997 and became a Notary Public in 2002.

In fact, 84-year-old Narasinghe, is still in good form and has never had any medicine throughout his life and is still involved in athletics.