Susanthika in polls race!
by Nilma Dole
Susanthika Jayasinghe’s name
goes down in history as the first Sri Lankan woman to win an Olympic
medal for Sri Lanka. Born on December 17, 1975, Susanthika sprinted for
Sri Lanka as a renowned athlete specialising in the 100 and 200 metres.
 Hailing from Atnawala, a small village 60 kilometres, north of
Colombo, in spite of underprivileged conditions her determination would
not deter her goal to be a sprint queen by claiming medals at the Summer
Olympics and IAAF World Championships in Athletics. With her
magnificient performance at the IAAF World Championships in 1997, she
was trained in America.
In 2000 she became the nation’s first Olympic Games medalist since
1948, when she finished behind Marion Jones and Pauline Davis-Thompson
in the Women’s 200 metres.
On October 5, 2007 Marion Jones admitted to having been taking
performance enhancing drugs prior to the 2000 Summer Olympics, and
Jayasinghe was later awarded the silver medal.
More recently, Susanthika made the trip to Los Angeles where she
trained with Nagalingam Ethirveerasingam (Asian Games Gold Medalist in
high jump - 1958; and two-time Olympian in high jump - 1952 and 1956).
Shortly thereafter, she won gold medals in the 100 m and 200 m at the
Asian Athletics championships 2007 in Jordan, a bronze medal for the 200
m race at the IAAF World Championships 2007. Proving her sprint motions
were truly in action, it was her first world championship medal in 10
years.
On February 5, 2009, Jayasinghe announced her retirement from sports
as she was committed on being a mother to her baby boy who was born on
March 31, 2009. Today, Susanthika Jayasinghe will contest the upcoming
Sri Lanka general election from the Kegalle district under the UPFA.
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