Bronze for Susanthika

Susanthika Jayasinghe confused critics, baffled sports scientists, stunned the world and jubilated countrymen, turning tragedy to triumph within a mere five days to humiliate rankings and shock the favourites in capturing the World championship bronze in the 200 metres at the Nagai stadium here in Osaka last night.

The 31-year old produced a perfectly calculated dip to the line to emerge a stunning medal winner ahead of two Americans Torri Edwards, Sanya Richards and Jamaican Aleen Bailey in an amazingly tight finish for the third place, and lay on the track as the scoreboard finally flashed up the result to an unbelievable stadium. This included Jayasinghe, who failed to hide her amazement when a TV cameraman stood in front of her, and her picture flashed on the giant screen to materialise a fairy tale that started from a painful disqualification in the 100m on Sunday.

She immediately let out a shout of joy and jumped up to run towards the stands to grab a national flag and then started her own victory celebration while even the winner Allyson Felix of United States remained on the sidelines without such a celebration.Defending champion Felix, who was the hot favourite for the event, flew off the blocks and was on a league of her own having secured an untouchable lead even as she rounded the bend for the final stretch. She screamed past the line in a brilliant 21.81, world's leading time this year while Jamaica's Veronica Campbell, the newly crowned 100m champion who was expected to challenge Felix, lagged behind and finished at least three metres after the champ in 22.34 for her season's best time.

Then came the mad rush as four runners including Jayasinghe on lane seven dipping for the finish almost together, but little did anyone expect the Sri Lankan to have pulled it through.

The Asian champion recorded 22.63, much slower than her season's best times of 22.55 in the first two rounds of the event on the previous day, but it yet proved good enough to snatch a medal out of nowhere, but she later claimed she had a fleeting hope. "I was hoping for a medal, though at the back of my mind I had a doubt. I did not want to tell anyone how I felt prior to the race, because I knew how strong the opposition was," Jayasinghe claimed.

Once again she was slow off the blocks needing a reaction time of .200 - an after effect of her disappointing exit from the 100m earlier through a false start, but was not the slowest this time, with American world athlete of the year in 2006 Sanya Richards recording a whopping .239 as her reaction time.

Jayasinghe entered the final stretch along with the pack, and stayed calm through the final phase, but importantly, did not lose pace as she did in the semi final. "My coach asked me to accelerate from the start, as I couldn't see the other runners from lane 7. He also told me to keep my arms at a lower level and not to make myself visible to the others till I entered the last stretch," Jayasinghe said.

American Torri Edwards was fourth in 22.65 while Richards was fifth in 22.70. Jamaica's Aleen Bailey who ran in lane four as the second fastest qualifier had false start earlier and finished sixth.

Jayasinghe cried on the shoulders of Sri Lankan journalists and claimed she regretted she had not had a more affluent childhood. "How good can I run. I am thankful to my parents. They brought me up with the greatest difficulty despite being squeezed by poverty. If I can run this well with all those difficulties, how well could have I performed if I had had a better life?" Jayasinghe asked.

President Mahinda Rajapaksatalked to her through the mobile phone of a Sri Lankan journalist and as she grabbed the phone she shouted "Sir, I won".

But Jayasinghe revealed that the victory was a tribute to her courage and revealed she almost quit. "I had a lot of problems including troubles in the family. I was devastated mentally. But I endured all. This is a true triumph for me." Jayasinghe, who claimed she lacked practice, told a post race press conference that she is not happy with her time. "I am happy with the medal, but I am not happy with the time" she said. "I had a stress fracture on my right leg and was in and out of competition for the past two years. It also kept me out of training." said Jayasinghe who only went for an intensive training programme just a month before the championships in Los Angeles under an international class coach.

She was in Sri Lanka training under local coaches, and her 200m timing hovered below 23 seconds in 2003 and 2004, while this year has been her best since 2000 when she won the silver medal at the Sydney Olympics. She revealed that Buddhist monk Uduwe Dhammaloka flown specially by a Sri Lankan living in Japan to bless her before the final chanted pirith and tied holy thread around her wrist and chanted pirith all the way to the stadium as she travelled to the stadium. "He even blessed my running shoes," she said.

She thanked President Rajapaksa and sports minister Gamini Lokuge and also the former sports minister S.B Dissanayake, and said her career was put back on track this year when her training allowance was increased to Rs. 50,000 per month. "People think super athletes lead super lives. Only I know my difficulties. With the right kind of backing I can do wonders for my country" she said.

She also said she believed her blessing was her countrymen. "Everyone in Sri Lanka loves me. It is a poor country, but people love me and that is the strength and secret of my success" she told foreign journalists.

"I came step by step on the recovery path following my injury and my problems off the field," she explained and said that the recovery will end. "When I win the Olympic gold and that is not a long time ahead. It would come at the Olympics next year in Beijing".

- daily mirror