Sri Lankan athletic coach's hard labor pays off

Sri Lankan athletic coach's hard labor pays off

JAKARTA (JP): Fifteen minutes of glory brushed aside years of
hardship in Dervin Pereira's coaching job when two Sri Lankan
female runners dashed to two gold medals on the penultimate day
of the 11th Asian Track and Field Championships here yesterday.

"This is the biggest success I've ever had. I think four years
of training has now paid off," said Pereira, the man behind Sri
Lanka's golden double yesterday.

Susanthika Jayasinghe made amends for her 100-meter loss by
out-dueling her stiffest contender, Chinese Chen Yanchun, to win
the 200m race in a record breaking time of 23 seconds.

Pereira was receiving hundreds of congratulation kisses a
moment later, when another trainee of his, Shriyani Kulawansa,
clocked the best time of 13.29 to dethrone defending champion
Zhang Yu of China in the 100m hurdles.

The two golds were Sri Lanka's first laurels in the
championships' history.

"I told you that my athletes would take a medal," Pereira,
surrounded by a throng of journalists, said with a big smile. The
coach was having being interviewed by reporters, who were curious
about another medal for Sri Lanka, when Kulawansa came first.

Yet, Kulawansa, still battling a fever, gave more than she
should have.

"It is a special victory. I was confident of just a silver
earlier because of the Chinese girl," Pereira admitted. "My
athlete suffered from a throat problem and a flu three days ago,"
he said.

Kulawansa was admitted to hospital after trouble with her
appendix. She was released after the doctors did not find it a
serious.

A patient Pereira looked to lose his composure when Kulawansa
lined up among the eight racers. His eyes stared at the track, as
if he was not willing to miss every step Kulawansa made on her
way to the finish line.

"It's very difficult to win a gold, you know. The Chinese
eased past Shriyani in the Asian Games," the Sri Lankan national
head coach said.

No surprise

Pereira said that Jayasinghe's triumph did not surprise him a
lot. "Susanthika specializes in the 200m race. She beat the same
opponent in Taipei last May," he said. Jayasinghe took the bronze
in 200m in the Asian Games in Hiroshima, Japan last year.

Jayasinghe just finished one race a hundredth second behind
China's Cui Danfeng Wei, who clocked 11.36 to win the 100m race
on Thursday.

"I'm not expecting a gold from the 100m, though I targeted two
golds from these championships. I worry about the 200, the event
Susanthika has excelled in so far," Pereira, who is also an
assistant director at the Ministry of Sports, said.

Pereira, who got his master of science degree in Leipzig,
Germany in 1986, called up a talented Jayasinghe to join the
national training program conducted under the Ministry of Sports
in 1991. It took the coach just a year to attain his goal when
Jayasinghe won a silver in her international debut at the 1992
South Asian Games in Karachi, Pakistan.

It was also mastery, along with a lot of care, that led the
coach to change Kulawansa's fate in 1991. Pereira asked high
jumper Kulawansa to run on the track after she hurt her spine.

"My dream now is to win medals in the Commonwealth Games next
year. The next agenda is winning golds in the 1998 Asian Games in
Bangkok," Pereira said.

Both Jayasinghe and Kulawansa will continue with their
rigorous training, five hours every day for six days a week, just
after their short jubilation. They are heading for another
international performance at the South Asian Games in Madras,
India in December. (amd)