Please take care of Hammer Throw too – Ayesha

A few years ago women’s Hammer Throw was the least interesting event in athletic meets with no real competition in the event, but three years ago Ayesha Madhuwanthi trained by Coach Madhawa Senarath Bandara, triggered a change when she threw a distance of 42.74m in Anuradhapura and shattering the record of Manoji Amarasinghe during the National Sports Festival 2014.

Then there came the fierce competition among the trio of Manoji, Ayesha and Aruni Lakshika, as one after the other broke the record every year, and Ayesha shattered it for the fourth time last week increasing the distance to 47.92m, with the potential of achieving 50m in the near future.

Yet none of these throwers or coaches is happy about the recognition and care given to the event and they claim that the Athletic Association (AASL) continues to ignore the importance of the event by pushing it out of the main stadium in Diyagama.

“I’m very happy about the record but I should say that the organization of this event was very poor. We did not even have a proper Hammer. All hammers we were provided with were failures,” said Ayesha.

“This is the fourth time I broke the Sri Lanka record in the event, but recognition and facilities hasn’t improved since. This event too could have been conducted inside the main stadium. But they decided to hold it outside the stadium in a corner where no one can see,” added Ayesha, who also won the discus throw event.

Ayesha and colleagues have certainly taken hammer throw to the next level, but she hasn’t had a chance for a proper competition yet.

“We have come a long way in the last four years. We train hard and sacrifice a lot for this event but I’m yet to get even a single international competition. I’m very sad about the state of Hammer Throw in SL. What I want to request from authorities is please take care of the Hammer Throw too. If we athletes and coaches are focused about it why can’t authorities too? Even we are getting discouraged when we are treated like this,” said Ayesha.