Ace high jumper Manjula - Brand Ambassador for People's Bank

By Ranjan Anandappa

SPONSORSHIP: The new Brand Ambassador for People's Bank, national high jump champion Manjula Kumara, one of the country's prospective gold medallist at the current Asian Games and even at the next Olympics said that he would give one hundred percent effort to win a 'gold' at the Qatar Asian Games. He assured that his conduct would be exemplary and will be in accordance, to the code of conduct of the Bank and the Games.

"The People's Bank was established to keep everybody happy and to bring glory to the country. We are committed to lend a helping hand to those who have the talent and the ability, but who have been deprived of opportunities", said Chairman of the People's Bank Dr. P. A. Kiriwandeniya.

"Our main objective in making Manjula as our Brand Ambassador is definitely because he seems to be a good bet in bringing medals to the country. Our ambition is not to make him a trade mark in our marketing field." he said.

A house worth 36 lakhs in Kiribathgoda will be gifted to Manjula Kumara and his mother, for him to find easy access for his training programme while in Sri Lanka.

He has been awarded a special International Olympic Committee scholarship in 2004, and he is presently residing in the United States, following an Economics Degree at the University of Southern California. Michael Pulles is his coach in the University and Keerthi Kumara is his local coach.

Manjula Kumara hails from a remote village, Morawaka, in down south in Deniyaya. He has to face several obstacles while travelling to Colombo for training. He lives in a ram shackled house with his mother.Travelling to Colombo for training, at times is an agonising experience. So the house donated by the People's Bank will no doubt help him immensely to concentrate more in his training programme. Manjula will be Brand Ambassador for six years.

The house is given to Manjula on a loan basis.

Within the six years the loan will be paid by the Marketing Section of the Bank. So Manjula hasn't to bother about the repayment of the loan. He was also ever grateful to former Asian Games gold medallist high jumper Nagalingam Ethiriweerasingham who assists him in his training programmes in the States and in his University affairs.

At a press briefing held in connection to the sponsorship Kumara at the People's Bank, Staff Training College, Auditorium, D. R. Wijewardena Mawatha, Kumara said that it was a dream that became a reality as a house for himself was his immediate need and now he could breathe a sigh of relief as he could concentrate more on his sport. Manjula Kumara first took part in a meet in 1994 and that was the All Island under-11 meet, where he was placed second.

Then in 1998 competing in the under-15 category he won the first place clearing 1.78 m in the high jump. He was placed second in the All Island under-17 meet.

But, he won first place in 2001 at the Nationals at the Sugathadasa Stadium clearing 2.07m and thereafter never looked back being the undisputed champ for five consecutive years.

In the 2004 SAF Games held in Islamabad, Pakistan he established a new meet record clearing a height of 2.27 m.

The present Asian Games high jump record stands at 2.32m. Kuvera de Soysa and Chadrasiri de Silva (Directors People's Bank), Dr. P. A. Kiriwandeniya (Chairman People's Bank) Asoka de Silva (CEO) and Deepal Abeysekera (Head of Marketing) People's Bank and Faris Ismail (Manager of Manjula Kumara) were also present at the function.