Giant of the gym

A former S. Thomas' College rugby winger and Sri Lanka shot putt record holder rises to become the nation's fitness doctor two decades after he was laughed at:

by Callistus Davy

Hundreds of Sri Lankans who have developed a fanaticism for fitness may not know him from Adam. Yet they flock in their thousands to heal their bodies or take care of it before the foreseeable can happen as they jostle to patronise his gymnasiums that many see as offering the perfect formula for a healthy living.

For Talavou Alailima the rush to enroll or patronize his numerous Power World gyms scattered across the city and its environs, the time could not have been more appropriate to launch ten more fitness factories and it seems the former S. Thomas' College rugby winger of the late 1980s and Sri Lanka shot putt record holder for two decades will not stop until he launches a hundred more.

Alailima can turn heads wherever he goes given his soothing clean-shaven and strapping figure, but he wants nothing of it and only sees himself as a backstage life-saver of a nation where others may have failed.

"We are the final line to prevent people from hospital or dying from some disease.

"More than fifty percent of the people in Sri Lanka are overweight and they are dropping dead in their 30s and 40s", declared Alailima just minutes after his boyhood buddy Dayasiri Jayasekera now the country's youthful sports minister symbolically cut a ribbon to declare open ten fitness-training outlets on stage at the Taj Samudra Hotel on Wednesday night against a live television screen that showed the gyms in motion from Welisara in the north of Colombo to Panadura in the south.

Alailima is today far from the robust teenage boy he used to be at school when he would take a couple of defenders with him to cross the line and score.

He could walk up to a total stranger like a gentle giant for a gesturing handshake and that may hold the secret of the success of a man who is now living his dream to the fullest.

"Today is a day of celebration for me. I wanted to see what I see today, a milestone.

Here I am standing and it is so amazing. People have no option for a disease-free life other than fitness", said Alailima.

Alailima may have dreamed in Sri Lanka, but his journey began at a university in America. There as a student studying for his Masters degree, Alailima locked himself up alone in his room and cracked his brains to coin the term Power World that is now the trademark reference to his fitness training centres numbering 17. His Sri Lankan colleagues in the USA even laughed at him when he told them of his desire to set up a gymnasium on his return to the island and charge users Rs.500 a month. But twenty years down the line Alailima is not only discussing deals and rubbing shoulders with Sri Lanka's business elite, but also with corporate superstars across the Palk Strait in neighbouring India.

Topping that pedestal is the fitness monster of India, Prashant Talwalkar whose industry of the same name has now teamed up with Power World to invest and take the concept to a higher level. If Alailima wants he could boast of a thousand members frequently patronising each of his 17 fitness locations that offers users cardiovascular equipment, strength machines and weights among other body conditioning items.

Unknown to many Alailima also takes time off his gym business to advice Sports Minister Jayasekera who has made him a member of the policy-making National Sports Council (NSC) where his main task is to identify talent.

Jayasekera has no doubts that his recently launched fitness-for-all national project may receive just the boost to be taken from Colombo to far flung areas where Power World is yet to set up gymnasiums or fitness training centres."Sri Lankan sportsmen don't know anything about power-training at village level for muscular development and I hope you will take it to the villages", pleaded Jayasekera."It's a blessing to have Lima (Alailima) do this for the country after retiring (from sport) when you think of the many who retire and do nothing".

Jayasekera promised he would push for what he called "jogging (running) paths all over the country".