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| Sunday, 3 November 2002 |
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Sports |  |
| News Business Features Editorial
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Resurrecting Lankan athletics by Srian Obeyesekere Sri Lankan athletics could well be heading for no man's land. The man in charge of local athletics, Sunil Jayaweera makes no bones about this. For he says that our ahletics cannot go places without the necessary wherewithal. Lacking is the fundamenal requirement of a sports science research unit.
Four medals from the recent Asian Games in Busan would reflect how backward the standard is a that level. Just two gold medals. Both from the country's star women sprinters, Susanthika Jayasinghe in the 100 metres and Damayanthi Darsha in the 4x400 metres and a bronze each in the form of martial arts in Edward and the 4x400 metre relay spearheaded by Rohana Pradeep Kumara. At a juncture the country's cricket has forged ahead at internaional level, thanks to the necessary money, expertise and facilities, the bottom line of the sad state of Sri Lankan athletics could well be summed up by the fact that it lags in these areas. Above all expertise and modern facilities.
Above all what is niggling local ahletics is keeping the body fit free of injury and such handicaps. A prerequisite for an athlete to reach competitive heights at internaional level. Looking back at Busan, local experts say that two certain gold medals in the women's 200 metres and men's 4x400 relay were lost through injury to Susanthika Jayasinghe and Sugath Tillekeratne. Since, much soul searching has been done with the experts, not the least the coaches claiming that this handicap could have been averted had there been a physioherapist. Significantly, a sports medicine area in which the country's cricket thrives by the services of Australian born physio Alex Kontouri. That Sri Lankan athletics lingers in the shadows by want of having our athletes attended to in such an area in contrast to our cricket is indeed a sad sate of affairs.' What is questonable is why no remedial measures have been taken at a time the sport has yielded latent talent. Snce the days of Duncan White, our first Olympic medallist dating back to 52 years, the talent has been there. The Ediriweerasinghams, Dissanayakes of a bygone era followed by the Rosas and Badras to name a few have dazzled the track. Like our cricket, the modern age has produced the Susanthikas, Darshas, Tillekeratnes and Kumaras. Crusade Reflectively, it is to the credit of the school structure exending to the villages. Susanthika Jayasinghe is the best example. Indeed, the bane has been the failure to give local athletics the necessary oxygen. The advent of the likes of a Susanthika who ranks among the world's best must surely be a guiding light to that need. Seeing some of our athletes like Darsha, Tillekerane and Kumara lament their drawbacks to he media for need of better expertise reflects the tremendous handicaps and drawbacks. Jayaweera, who is President of the Athletics Association of Sri Lanka (AASL) formerly known as he Amateur Athletic Association, joins the athletes and coaches in the crusade for a better deal. "We don't have enough facilities. The bottom line is that having just a coach and doctor will not help," said Jayaweera who set forth to elaborate by stating that the biggest drawback an athlete faced here was the inability to assess his or her strenghth. Body in take In speed training an athlete must be able to know how much the body can take, he said going on to explain that an 'overload could be detrimental to the body'. But for this we do not have a testing machine, he lamented. He said a coach would not know how much training an athlete needed in a workout with a speed machine. 'For instance an athlete could tear a muscle while training with a speed machine if the coach was unaware of the body intake", Jayaweera furher sressed. But in the gloom of it all, local athletics could well begin to smile that at long last corrective measures are been conemplated as announced by the athletic boss. Jayaweera said that what augured well for the future was the intended setting up of a sports research unit. A sports research unit would resemble the neccessary manpower in the form of sports scientists, physiotherapists, masseurs, doctors and coaches mainly which would streamline preparing an athlete for an event, said Jayaweera. He said that after Busan, the Sports Minister, Johnston Fernando had asked the AASL to brief him on all the shortcomings and barriers. "Accordingly, we have indicated to the minister the need for a sports research unit", said Jayaweera who went on to add, Our biggest constraint is that an athlete is not well looked after. They only have a coach at their disposal. When they break a leg they go to a doctor. But that is not good enough. The doctor is not able to go into details of finding out what is wrong. For instance, what the nature of the injury is. Whether it was overtraining or some other cause. Only sports scientists could assess the condition of an athlete by such a research unit in giving our athletes that much needed care,' reasoned Jayaweera who added that one yardstick in briefing the minister was the recent performance of our junior athletes at the Asian Junior Athletic Championships. 42 took part, but we won just one silver despite having spent a sum of 22 lakhs of rupees to prepare for this meet", lamented Jayaweera. There are no trained sports scientists in Sri Lanka and as such the AASL is expecting government to government assistance from Australia", said Jayaweera who said that such centres were located in Sydney, Perth and Melbourne. He elaborated that a Sri Lankan, Hallam Pereira, a former Director of Sports with the Sports Ministry, who is presently a consultant of the Sports Ministry of Australia whom he had contacted had indicated the possibility of making available sports scientists to Sri Lanka. Training centre Inerestingly, the intended setting up of a high altitude training centre in tropical Nuwara-Eliya which is said to be a concept of the Sports Minister could well be another step in bettering the lot of our athletes, according to the AASL boss. 'The Minister want's to set up such a training centre in a location of 50 acres in Nuwara-Eliya. This would be a tremendous boost for athletics", said Jayaweera who explained that training in high altitude would facilitate the athlete. 'This would be ideally some 600 feet above sea level. The oxygen level is at the best levels and it would in so much be easy to train unlike in highly congesed Colombo full of carbon monoxyde". Such a location would also attract athletes from Ausralia and Malaysia to train along with Lankan athletes, according to Jayaweera. Whether Lankan athletics takes a leap forward the future will tell. |
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