Top Athletes Shut Out of South Asian Games
Front-runner in the 3000m steeplechase Nilani Ratnayaka trained long and hard to get to where she is today – which, it turns out, is nowhere. And she wants to know why.
Nilani has made giant strides in performance over the years: a massive improvement that’s reflected in her achievements in both the national and international arenas. She finished sixth in the 3000m steeplechase – her specialty – at the Asian Games, fourth in the Asian Championship even after suffering a fall at the last hurdle and was adjudged the Best Female Athlete at the recently concluded 97th National Athletic Championship: which doubled as the final trials for selection to the Sri Lanka team entering the South Asian Games (SAG) scheduled to be held on 01-10 December in Kathmandu, Nepal.
All to no avail: because the 3000m steeplechase, her pet event, which had earlier been featured on the SAG’s events list, has been unaccountably excluded from the revised list sent to the Athletics Association in June: news which – even more unaccountably – was not relayed to the one most affected by it, Nilani herself.
Indeed, Nilani learnt of this development only on the NAC’s last day of competition. The tragedy was that in her ignorance of it, assuming that winning the 3000m steeplechase – in 9 minutes 50.74 seconds, just four seconds shy of the 9:46.76 Sri Lanka record she set in 2018 – assured her of a berth in the SAG team, she did not complete the 5000m: thus losing out on the chance of competing at the SAG at all.
Devastated by this turn of events and near tears, Nilani wandered around the stadium in a state of shock on what should have been an evening of joyous celebration. Foremost among the many questions racing through her mind was: Why wasn’t she informed of this in advance so that she could concentrate on the 5000m instead? And why wasn’t an event that is regularly included in all major multi-sports meets such as the Olympics, Asian Games, Commonwealth Games and even the World and Asian Championships not included in the SAG?
Six events in total are missing from the SAG 2019 events schedule: the Hammer Throw, Pole Vault and 3000m Steeplechase for both men and women. All these events were included in the NAC, as they routinely are in major local and international competitions, and baffled winners of these events have the same set of questions bedeviling Nalini without knowing whom to turn to for answers or any inkling of who is responsible for the decision to drop them from the schedule; not to mention who is the genius responsible for not keeping the affected athletes in the loop.
Sri Lanka struck gold in the men’s pole vault at the last SAG with Ishara Sandaruwan, South Asia’s leading pole vaulter setting a new meet record. Nilani Ratnayaka is South Asia’s leading 3000m steeplechase runner. Sri Lanka is almost guaranteed of two gold medals in these events. (Additionally, the 3000m steeplechase is only event at which this year’s SAG host nation has ever won gold.) So why aren’t the officials concerned showing concern and striving to have these events reinstated on behalf of NAC gold medal winners frustrated at having their dreams of representing Sri Lanka at the SAG dashed?
RMS ‘Blacky’ Pushpakumara, who won the men’s 3000m steeplechase on Sunday morning, did not learn of its cancellation at the SAG until noon and had no choice but to run the 5000m in the afternoon to book a berth on the national team. Luckily for him – and Sri Lanka – he was successful in his effort, but Blacky and his coach were not short of words to convey their bewilderment and outrage.
Miscommunication
The AASL claims that they informed coaches of the truncated events list in advance during the SAG coaches’ meeting, but many participating coaches said they had heard no such thing. Nilani Ratnayaka’ s coach Sajith Jayalal, for instance, insisted that he wasn’t informed of the change until a few days ago by an AASL official when it was too late to change Nilani’s training to focus on the 1500m or any other event to get into the SAG team. Pertinently, he questioned why Sri Lanka, which fields the second biggest contingent in the SAG, is not pushing for the inclusion of these Olympic events in the SAG competition.
As things stand at the moment, even if Nilani won an Olympic gold medal she will still not have a South Asian gold medal to her name due to an arbitrary decision.
