Last Sunday (28) marked the silver jubilee (25th anniversary) of retired sprint-queen Susanthika Jayasinghe’s historic achievement of winning the silver medal in the 200m final at the 2000 Summer Olympics in Australia.
In the Women’s 200m final held on 28 September, 2000 at the Sydney Olympics, Jayasinghe originally finished behind Marion Jones of the US and Pauline Davis-Thompson of the Bahamas.
Jayasinghe’s heroics of initially winning bronze, saw her become only the second athlete from her country to win any kind of medal at the greatest sporting festival on the planet.
This was since the late Duncan White’s silver medal-winning effort at the London Olympics in 1948.
But, the International Olympic Committee (IOC) subsequently stripped then disgraced Marion Jones of her gold after she admitted to lying to federal investigators about her use of performance-enhancing drugs in 2007.
After the IOC formally disqualified the US sprinter of all five gold medals which she won at the Sydney Games, the sport’s world controlling body on 9 December 2009 awarded the gold to David-Thompson, with Jayasinghe being elevated to the silver and Jamaica’s Beverly McDonald, the bronze.
Susanthika Jayasinghe who was then aged 24, had completed her medal-winning sprint in the 200m final in 22.28 seconds, to become only the second Olympic medallist for Sri Lanka.
However, thanks to Marion Jones’ doping violation revelation seven years later, Jayasinghe – one of the most decorated sprinters in Sri Lankan athletics history, thus etched her name into the country’s sporting folklore, while emulating White’s deeds 52 years before.
Jayasinghe who bid adieu to athletics 16 years ago, also became the first Asian woman to win an Olympic or World Championship medal in a sprint event and she is also the only Asian athlete to date to have claimed an Olympic medal in sprint events.
Her silver medal achievement at the 2000 Summer Games, also stood as the sole Olympic medal for a South Asian in athletics event for 21 years, before Indian javelin thrower Neeraj Chopra’s gold medal achievement at the 2020 Summer Olympics in Tokyo.
Jayasinghe, 49, who resides in Melbourne, Australia since last year, was fondly nicknamed ‘the Asian Black Mare’ for her prowess on the track during her pomp, as she represented her country at three Olympics 1996 (Atlanta), 2000 and 2008 (Beijing), respectively.
The three original medal winners at the 2000 Sydney Olympics in the 200m final
1st – Marion Jones – US 21.84 seconds
2nd – Pauline Davis-Thompson – Bahamas 22.27 seconds
3rd – Susanthika Jayasinghe – Sri Lanka 22.28 seconds
The amended medal winners list at the 2000 Sydney Olympics in the 200m final
1st – Pauline David-Thompson – Bahamas 22.27 seconds
2nd – Susanthika Jayasinghe – Sri Lanka 22.28 seconds
3rd – Beverly McDonald – Jamaica 22.35 seconds