Susanthika – first Sri Lankan to reach IAAF World Championship podium

Susanthika Jayasinghe

Mannalage Susanthika Jayasinghe was born on December 17, 1965 in the village of Uduwaka, close to Warakapola. She had her early education at Uduwaka Primary School and joined Athnawala MV for her secondary education.

She began to display her prowess at Inter-School, Zonal and District Level Meets while competing in the 50m and 75m events.

The Teacher-in-Charge of Sports at her school, Indra Padmini Perera soon realised that Susanthika had an extraordinary physical strength compared to other girls and laid the foundation to improve her athletics career.

Thereafter, Susanthika received further guidance from Sports Instructor Chithra Mallika. The Sports Officer of Warakapola, Dhammika Wanigasinghe then took further action by consulting an athletic specialist realising that Susanthika has a bright future ahead at international level.

Following the instructions of the athletic specialist, Susanthika was immediately brought under the supervision of veteran Coach Dervin Perera.

Thereafter, she joined the Sri Lanka Army and began training under the guidance of Dervin Perera. She participated in her first major international event at the 1993 Dhaka South Asian Federation (SAF) Games and won the Bronze Medal while returning a time of 24.56s.

She then went on to win the 200m Gold Medal at the 1994 Asian Junior Athletics Championships in Jakarta, Indonesia with a record breaking performance of 23.16s.

She also won the 200m Gold Medal at the 1995 Asian Championships in Jakarta with another record-breaking effort of 23.00s.

She won the Silver Medal in the 100m event at the same meet with a time of 11.37s. She then won the 200m Silver Medal at the 1994 Hiroshima Asian Games while returning a time of 23.57s.

She won the 100m Gold Medal at the 1995 Madras SAF Games with a new mark of 11.34s and took the Gold Medal in the 200m event as well in the same meet with another record-breaking performance of 22.95s.

She won the 200m Silver Medal at the 1997 World Athletics Championships in Athens with a time of 22.39s. This was the first occasion that a Sri Lankan athlete had won a medal at a World Championships.

In 1998, her best performance was 11.27s in the 100m and 23.28s in the 200m event. In 1997, she had the opportunity of training under veteran athletics coach Tony Campbell in the USA.

As a result, Susanthika went on to display her talent by winning the third place at the 2000 Sydney Olympic Games with a time of 22.28s.

In fact, this was only the second medal for Sri Lanka at an Olympic Games. Her performance was later upgraded to a Silver Medal after the winner of the event Marian Jones was stripped of her medal following a doping test.

Susanthika also won the 100m Gold Medal at the 2002 Asian Games in Busan, South Korea. She won the 100m Silver Medal and the 200m Bronze Medal at the 2006 Asian Games in Doha, Qatar.

She won the 200m Bronze Medal at the 11th World Athletics Championships in Japan with a time of 22.63s.

Susanthika had the honour of representing the country at four Olympic Games in 1996, 2000, 2004 and 2008. In addition, she also had the distinction of participating in SAF Games, Asian Games, Grand Prix Meets and in several Open Championships.

After retiring from the sport, she joined the Sports Ministry as the Director of Talent Search and Olympic Director High Performance. (C.D)