Susanthika Jayasinghe
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Susanthika Jayasinghe (born:December 17, 1975 in Atnawala, Sri Lanka) is a sprint athlete.
Brought up in a poor family in a small village 60 kilometres north of Colombo, where running spikes cost more than the average month's wage, Susanthika had no access to proper sports equipment or coaches.
This makes it so much more of an achievement that she managed to progress to a standard where she could claim a medals at both the Summer Olympics and IAAF World Championships in Athletics.
After her performance in 1997 at the IAAF World's she travelled to the United States of America to train.
Along with Sriyath Subash Dissanayake and Sugath Tillakaratne she has helped show that Sri Lankan women can compete on the international athletics stage when in 2000 she became the nations first Olympic Games medalist since 1948 behind Merlene Ottey and Zhanna Pintussevitch
Susanthika has been embroiled in controversy most of her career, she was suspended from competiton in April 1998 for failing a drug test, that she claimed was rigged due to her her political beliefs and a falling out with a Sports Ministry official, but was later cleared of the offence. After returning home with her Olympic medal she was attacked by a male athlete because, she believed, she had been supporting former government members in an election campaign.
With no support from her national athletics association she had to go heavily into debt to even reach the Olympics but on her return was supported by a national fundraising drive. She has since left her home country and gone to live in the USA.
Major achievements
- 1994
- Asian Games
- 200 m. silver medal
- Asian Games
- 1997
- World Championships - Athens, Greece.
- 200 m. silver medal
- World Championships - Athens, Greece.
- 2000
- Summer Olympics - Sydney, Australia.
- 200 m. bronze medal
- Summer Olympics - Sydney, Australia.
- 2002
- Asian Games - Busan, South Korea
- 100 m. gold medal
- Asian Games - Busan, South Korea