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| Sunday, 19 September 2004 |
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Gishanthi Jayakody : Shooting her way to success by Lakmal Welabada
Deemed the sixth best shoot in the World, the 6' 3'' gangly teen, with a pleasing demeanour started her path to shooting stardom in 1994.When she was a year 4 student at St. Joseph's College Primary at Nugegoda, 'Intelligent' as she is sporty, Gishanthi won a scholarship to Visakha Vidyalaya, Colombo. "At first Basketball was my passion. Visakha had a name for Basketball then. Netball came later," she says explaining that.she took part in many netball championships representing the school. In 2000 and 2001 with Gishanthi representing the under 16 and under 18 teams respectively, Visakha won the All Island Inter-School Netball Championship for the Milo Trophy in the Western Province. They also became under 17 champions in the Education Department - Western Province Division, Colombo South Sports Meet in 2000. Gishanthi was named the Most Outstanding Sports Woman for her excellent performance in Netball, and was awarded Sri Lanka School Games Colours for Netball by the Sri Lanka Schools Sports Council in 2001. Gishanthi's six ft height and sporting spirit brought victory to Visakha not only in Netball, but also in Basketball. They won the Sri Lanka Schools Basketball Association's - All Island Championship and the Sri Lanka School Basketball Association Zone/District Level Competition for many years, with Gishanthi being named the Best Player and Best Offensive Player many times. She captained both the Netball and Basketball teams from time to time. Gishanthi played for the Western Province Netball team before capturing the attention of Ms. Thamara Dharmakeerthi Herath, President of the Netball Federation of Sri Lanka.And so she began a journey that not only propelled her to fame but also placed Sri Lanka in the Netball arena as a team to contend with. Gishanthi's first foreign trip was a practice-tour to Seychelles. On her second trip, which was the Commonwealth Games held in Manchester, UK in 2002, Sri Lanka didn't do all that well, securing eighth place. However, the Junior Asian Netball Championship held in Kuala Lumpur, Malaysia in 2002 was a memorable event in Gishanthi's life ,as the Sri Lankan team came away with all the honour winning the championship. After making a practice tour to the US the national team took part in the World Netball Championship 2003 held in Jamaica and secured 18th place from among 24 countries. However, real recognition came her way when she was selected as the World Sixth Best Shoot in the world at the World Netball Championship Cup in July last year. New Zealand player was named No. 1 Netball Shoot. Foreign exposure brought her a lot of experience. "When compared with us (the Sri Lankans), the Netball players of other countries are like giants. They have the height as well as the build. The tallest player of the entire international set was from South Africa. She was 192cm tall," says Gishanthi overlooking her own 188cm height. Zooming back to her school days, Gishanthi's reminisces how she had to neglect classroom work as her focus was on Netball. "My parents used to grumble over that a bit, but never tried to stop me from playing. My two older sisters also did sports when schooling. But they concentrated more on their studies," she says. One of her sisters is a medical student and the other works for a private company. They are involved in sports at an institutional level. Her father who is a retired Army Officer was the main inspiration for the three sisters. Gishanthi still remembers how she and her sisters used to cheer when their father was playing Volleyball for the Sri Lanka Army. "My mother is a retired teacher. And she has been my shadow since I was small," she says fondly. Gishanthi was the Deputy Games Captain in Visakha Vidyalaya in 2003. She learnt eastern music as the aesthetic subject. "I love any kind of music. But my favourites are Mark Anthony and Riky Martin," she says. Gishanthi loves to eat apples. Kittens are her favourite pets. "I adore them. Once I made a tomb in memory of my dead kitten," she remembers. Other than listening to music, Gishanthi favourite hobby is clinging on to the phone with her pals or sending SMS's to her friends all over the world. Gishanthi says the first and last incident that made her cry was when her team lost to Wales by one point at the Commonwealth Games in 2002. "Except for that occasion, I have been able to bear up both the loss and victory in life. I think I gained that through my experience in sports," she stresses. Today after obtaining fairly good A/L results in the bio-science stream, the teenage sportswoman is studying for her CIMA exams at the Academy of Business Studies (ABS). When asked how she copes with problems, Gishanthi says "As I'm a sensitive person, I feel for things easily. But I hate to quarrel. I just face it, and never hesitate to get a kind advice from others. But the biggest problem I have come across, is finding trousers to fit my long legs. The normal length of the available jeans are too short for me" she says. |
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| Politics | Produced by Lake House |
You have everyone's favourite 'Murali' doing Sri Lanka proud in
cricket. You have Susanthika, though not everyone's darling at the moment,
doing Sri Lanka proud in athletics. And now you have teenager Gishanthi
Jayakody, doing Sri Lanka proud in Netball.
