High Jump icon Manjula bids goodbye

Olympian High Jumper Manjula Kumara Wijesekara called it a day to his versatile professional athletics career, marking the end of a remarkable journey which brought glory to Sri Lanka at the international athletics arena for almost two decades.

Manjula the iconic High Jumper and National record holder throughout the last two decades wanted to end on a high by winning a medal for Sri Lanka during the forthcoming South Asian Games, but unfortunately could not qualify for it since he missed the trials. He then wanted to compete at the recent National Sports Festival   but wasn’t given the opportunity to compete due to some bizarre ruling by the Department of Sports Development, which deprived Manjula from participating, where the visibly saddened jumper called it a day after a press conference yesterday.

Hailing from a poor family in Morawaka, Manjula was the fourth child in a big family. His father did not have a permanent job while his mother was a tea plucker. Speaking to the media, Manjula took the gathering down memory lane and said his foray into sports was as a volleyball player, although he had shown his prowess as an athlete at his first school, Kosnilgoda Primary School, which created the path for him to get admission to Vijitha Central College Dikwella, which changed his sporting journey.

“I still remember my first All Island School Games medal in 1994. I did not have shoes or a kit to wear. My parents did not have money to take me to Colombo to compete. It was the Principal of my first school and her husband who took me to the competition at the Sugathadasa Stadium, where I won the silver medal competing barefoot, wearing blue school shorts and white skinny which I wore underneath my school shirt,” said Manjula.

Following that he came under the watchful eyes of Coach Keerthi Kumara, whom Manjula gives credit for carefully nurturing his talent. Manjula then met former Olympian high jumper Nagalingam Ethirveerasingam, whom Manjula considers as his second father. Ethirveerasingam  who represented Sri Lanka in the 1952 and 1956 Olympic Games, was also the country’s first Asian Games Gold medalist . Ethirveerasingam  who was a US resident by that time, became a guiding light to Southerner Manjula, who went on to establish a Sri Lanka record and qualify for the Athens Olympics. He also influenced Manjula to take up university education.

“Meeting Ethirveerasingam Sir was the turning point of my life.  At that age I had no idea about who he was, but he had seen my performance in a newspaper and written to my school. I did not understand what he had written at the time and my school Principal and English teacher prepared and sent a reply to him. Since then he has been a guardian angel as far as my career is concerned. He kept me and my coach for six months at his house for training in the early 2000 era, taught me English and Computer, and helped and influenced me to take up university education at the Southern California University where I completed a degree in Economics,” said Manjula.=

Throughout his 18-year long international career, Manjula has won two Gold medals (Asian Championship 2005 and 2009), and represented Sri Lanka at the 2004 Athens Olympic Games , 2005 World Championship, four Asian Games (2002, 2006, 2010 and 2014) and two Commonwealth Games.

Even at the last stages of his career, Manjula was in prime form winning the Bronze medal at the Asian Indoor Games 2017 and Asian Indoor Championship in 2016, competing against two- time world champion Mutaz Essa Barshim who won the Gold medal.  He has also won three South Asian Games Gold medals and led the Sri Lankan team in many international athletic meets, including the 2006 Asian Games, 2016 South Asian Games and 2017 Asian Athletics Championship.

As an athlete who excelled in his sports for so long, Manjula reckons with the right kind of help and exposure Sri Lankan athletics can fly high once again.

“We do have talented athletes in this country, but what is lacking is the right kind of support and international exposure. Participating in two low quality international events does not help athletes to perform better,” said Manjula.

Manjula also said rules for competitions such as National Sports Festival should change, looking at the athlete’s point of view, and provide an opportunity for athletes who live outside Sri Lanka to compete and represent the country.

“I competed at the Australian Open Championship with proper authorization from the Sri Lankan authorities, where I leapt 2.15m. The Australian Open Championship is an internationally recognized Championship and recognized by the world of athletics as well the Olympics. An athlete can achieve qualification standards for Olympic Games and World Championship during that championship, but for our National Sports Festival I was told that wasn’t recognized as an international event to consider my entry,” said Manjula.

“I think those rules should change. The purpose of spending millions at events like the NSF is to create a platform for athletes to perform and not to block athletes. But having said that, since there was a rule which prevented me from competing, I accept that,” added Manjula, who said it was his fault for not knowing the rule and the Ministry should take the initiative to publicize those rules for the benefit of athletes.

Manjula is presently following a diploma course in Australia and said he is hoping to further his education in Australia by following a Masters Degree in Sports Management.

“I hope to involve myself in sports in some other capacity than an athlete in future. I have some ideas and I will present a proposal to develop athletics following my Masters Degree,” said Manjula.

Manjula already had a successful coaching stint while being an athlete, when he successfully trained several top notch high jumpers. Thilina Karunarathne of Royal College who leaped 2.17m was trained by Manjula, while Southern high jumper Tharindu Dasun who leaped 2.12m and won the South Asian Junior Gold medal last year, was also trained by Manjula.

Manjula trained under Cuban coach Luis Miranda and was able to maintain his height within the 2.21m-2.25m range during the latter stages of his career despite some unfortunate injuries and illness, including suffering from dengue ahead of major international meets. He has also inspired and helped many athletes, especially jumpers, in the national and junior national pools, during his last few years in Sri Lanka.

“As an athlete who gave more than half of my life to sports, it was a hard decision for me to say good bye to my competitive career. But all good things comes to an end, and with my age I think it’s the right time,” said Manjula, who then extended his deep appreciation to each and every one who helped him throughout his career, including his manager, coaches in Sri Lanka and overseas, Nagalingam Ethirveerasingam, Sri Lankan community in Melbourne, Sports Ministry, Athletics Association and everyone who helped him thoughtout his career, even by just a little.