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| Monday, 6 December 2004 |
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Tilaka Jinadasa - Sri Lanka's first Woman Olympian Life and times in sport by Premasara Epasinghe The greatest achievement for any sportsman or sportswoman is to represent his or her country in a sport discipline. Olympic Games is very very special. If you are selected and participate in an Olympic Games, it is undoubtedly the pinnacle, any sportsman or sportswoman can achieve. It is interesting to trace the history of Olympic Games in a nut-shell. This sporting contests originally held in Olympic, ancient Greece, every four years during a sacred truce; records were kept from 775 B.C. Women were forbidden to be present, and the male contestants were naked. The ancient games were abolished in 394 A.D. The present day games were held every four years since 1896. Since 1924, there has been a separate winter games programmes. From 1994, the winter and summer games will be held two years apart. Olympian is a person of great attainments or super human calm. To be the first Woman Olympian of Sri Lanka is a record that no one can erase. It will stand for ever. I wonder the then Minister of Sports, late Vincent Perera, for a moment realised, when he approved Sri Lanka's small contingent to the Olympic Games in Seoul, South Korea in 1988, history was created in Sri Lanka's Olympic movement. In 1988, for the first time in the Sri Lanka's Olympic history, a woman was selected to represent the country. The first Sri Lankan woman olympian was Kosgamage Thilaka Dhammika Jinadasa, popularly known as Thilaka Jinadasa. - The Golden Girl of Athletics in the 1980s. She was the most successful female athlete who achieved greater heights during her ten years track career. She represented her country in the five South Asian Federation Games (SAF) held upto 1983. Further, she represented in three Asian Games. Double International Thilaka was a double international. She represented Sri Lanka in Athletics and Netball. After she gave up Athletics, in 1991, Thilaka, took up to netball in 1993. She represented in the third Asian Championship held in Hong Kong, where Sri Lanka was placed third. Netball was nothing new to her. In 1985, when she was working at the Ceylon Oxygen Company, she represented Nationalised Services Netball Team and toured Singapore and Malaysia. She was the Sri Lanka Netball Vice-Captain at the 4th Asian Championships held in 1997. Further, she followed a course in netball in Perth, Australia and obtained a scholarship to follow a course at Australian Institute of Sports in Canberra ACT, Australia. There, she was awarded the high performance coaches certificate. In her early national career, her events were 100 metres and 200 metres. As she had stiff competition from Ramani Mangalika and Simonne Van Heer, she decided to concentrate on 100 metres hurdles. In 1980, she joined ACE Athletic club. Her coach was Yogananda Wijesundera. In 1984, for the first time, she represented Sri Lanka in 100 metres. 4 X 100 and 4 X 400 at the first SAF Games held in 1984, at Kathmandu, Nepal. Later, she participated in four other SAF Games held in 1985, 1987, 1989 and 1991. Thilaka Jinadasa had the proud distinction of winning a Medal in each of these SAF games. In 1987, she won a gold for 100 metres with a new SAF games record timing of 14.48 seconds. Other than that, she won a silver (4 X 100 metres relay) and a Bronze in 400 metres hurdles. Thilaka was born on 15th March 1963. His father's name is K. Jinadasa from Galle and mother Wimala Jinadasa from Kotte. Her brother's name is Anura Jinadasa and three sisters - Maya, Udeni and Visakha. She studied at Sri Jayawardenapura Balika Maha Vidyalaya, Kotte. She commenced her Athletic career as an under 13 competitor. Her first coach was Sujeewa Wijethilaka. Her parents and Principal Sumana Pallewatta and Physical Training Instructress Shyama Samarakone helped her to reach the top. Thilaka who is an employee of the Ceylinco Group of Companies is ever grateful to its chairman Deshamanya Dr. Lalith Kotelawala. Thilaka is an ornament to women athletics. She is level headed and intelligent and unassuming. The former athlete paid a glowing tribute to Sriyani Kulawansa. "She is a down to earth girl. She trained like us. That is the main reason that she had a long career. My career spanned about 14 years. If you analyse and see carefully present day athletes have a fairly a short career" stated Thilaka Jinadasa. Thilaka was no doubt the undisputed national champion in the 100 metres hurdles and she retired in 1991 undefeated. "I consider it an honour to represent the country. During our era, it was a great pleasure to take part in athletics. We respected our coaches and teachers. Now things have changed. Today, there is lot of money involved. Therefore, sometimes due to money, human aspects are forgotten" stated Thilaka. |
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