[Spotlight]

Athletics: Why neglect rural talent?

If Olympic bronze medallist Susanthika Jayasinghe's retirement just over a fortnight ago is misty for the local athletic world in seeing significantly Sri Lanka's only star studded athlete in modern times bow out, the emergence of 18-year old Shehan Ambepitiya is something to smile about in a sport which though Sri Lankan athletic officials have reportedly sadly not geared up for the upcoming South Asian Games in Bangladesh and the 2010 Asian Games in China. Indeed, Susanthika, the darling of the local track, who cut a swathe in the sport as a sprinter, has left a vacuum that in her own farewell words will not be easy to fill. She had in fact emphasised that the athletic juggernaut would have its plate full.

In fact, the past decade or so saw our athletic sports make some headway with the likes of Susanthika, Damayanthi Dharsha, Sriyantha Dissanayake Sriyani Kulawansa and Sugath Tillekeratne making headway; Susanthika at the highest level and the others at South Asian and Asian level.

But with that generation of sprinters and long distance runners now being a thing of the past, the onus falls on the athletic authorities to unearthing new latent talent that would see a new generation of athletes takeover. But sadly, by all accounts with officials overseeing the sport neglecting that area with more accent on making the numbers to international extravaganzas it must indeed be a niggling factor in Sri Lanka capitalising on the sweat and tears of the Susanthikas and Dharshas who did their motherland proud.

Today, like our cricketers have brought international recognition from time to time, Susanthika has put Sri Lanka on the map of the international athletic hemisphere by her heroic medal winning feat at the 2000 Sydney Olympics. What is needed is to take the likes of Susanthika, Dharsha and Tillekeratne, who had the distinction of beating the world's fastest sprinter Michael Johnson of the USA, as shining examples to moot the new generation of athletics to take the sport forward.

Of course, that young Shehan Ambepitiya is the new rainbow after Susanthika with loads of promise for the future considering the impact he made at the Junior Commonwealth Athletic Championships in Pune, India not so long ago is encouraging. Significantly, he beat some well known names at that level in the 100, 200 and 4x100 metre events. Like Susanthika and Dharsha, this lad from Gateway International School, who hails from a not so well to do family whose father is a vendor from Rajagiriya, has underwritten that most of our successful athletes started from small beginnings.

Notably, village athletes, despite handicaps unlike the elite Colombo sportsmen have shown the way. In weight lifting, again it was a rural youth, Chinthana Vithanage who emerged as the 'Mr. Hercules' of the Commonwealth when he won the gold medal in the 69 kg. category a few years ago.

Notably, rural sportsmen and women have shown that the heart of athletic sports lies in the village, and that it that latent talent is tapped in a concentrated drive rural youth would be the answer to taking our athletic sports to a new curve.

In this context, it is hoped that the National Olympic Council and the Amateur Athletic Association would play a more meaningful role in unearthing enough talent that the rural schoolchildren have displayed at, bring those uncut gems and polish them up to reap the type of harvest the sport needs.