Waiting for the next Olympic hurdler 

Tokyo Olympics – 7 days to go

By Reemus Fernando

Continued from yesterday

Hurdles as obstacles

A maximum of four athletes advance from each Zonal to the Provincial Competition where they experience their first proper 400 metres hurdles race. An athlete qualifying from the Provincial level will next compete in the All Island Schools Games Athletics Championship. The Sir John Tarbet Athletics Championship, the Sri Lanka Athletics’ Junior National Championship and District meets are the other meets where a schools hurdler could compete on proper hurdles.  However, a vast majority of schoolchildren do not witness hurdles races at school level due to the unavailability of hurdles.

What about sports schools? Sadly many Sports Schools which have 400 metres tracks do not have enough hurdles to conduct proper 400 metres hurdles races.  Ibbagamuwa Central, one of the Sports Schools from where the country’s most decorated female hurdler in the 100 metres hurdles hailed from, does not conduct 400 metres hurdles races. Even for 100 metres hurdles, they opt for just two lanes.

“Hurdles are a real headache for education officials who conduct athletics events at Divisional and Zonal level. If you are really interested in conducting a hurdles race you can certainly do that. It is not a big deal to collect 80 hurdles from where they are available. It is a matter of managing logistics. Maybe it is the lack of funds and manpower to complete the meet in two or three days that discourage officials from conducting it properly,” says a coach.

 “There used to be a time when you could see hurdles set up at St. John Bosco ground, Hanwella all day around. That was the time when Rev. Fathers trained athletes. During that time Hanwella had the best hurdlers in the country. Children who pass by the hurdles would make attempts to clear the hurdlers. Those sights are rare nowadays,” says Saman Kumara, Sri Lanka Athletics statistician.

Setting up hurdles and removing them after training is a time consuming endeavour.  Sports Instructors at schools that promote more than one sport find it difficult to leave hurdles at the ground for the next  training session when the ground is also used for other sports.

However, dedicated coaches and their athletes have often overcome the unavailability of facilities. When St. Joseph’s Balika, Kegalle was producing the fastest female sprinters at school level nearly a decade ago A.D. Nandawathie’s trainees would carry hurdles from the school to the ground in Kegalle on foot. After the training session in the morning, they would return to school on foot carrying the hurdles. One of Nanda’s trainees, Amali Harshani went on to win at the national level. That was in the 100 metres hurdles. She had a wind-aided personal best of 14.08 seconds in 2012.

To be continued……..