The scholarship granted by the International Olympic Committee (IOC) for the Australian based teenage pole vaulter Mudith Jayasekara has been proved to be a white elephant as Athletics Association of Sri Lanka (AASL) has suggested two other athletes for a fresh IOC scholarship next year stating that they cannot justify Jayasekara’s scholarship based on his poor progress.
Incidentally when the scholarship was granted Jayasekara had a personal best jump of 4:40m but National Champion of the event Ishara Sandaruwan who hails from Polonnaruwa had personal best of 4:60m and was only 19 year old.
But Jayasekara who was granted a scholarship worth 1000 US dollars per month did not feature in any international events representing Sri Lanka as he was ruled out from last Asian Junior championship due to injury despite Sri Lanka naming him in the squad and considered him as a medal hope.
“There are two athletes who have qualified for the World Junior Championship but Jayasekara couldn’t come near qualification,” said Maj. Gen. Palitha Fernando, President of the AASL
AASL has suggested 800m runner W.K.L.A. Nimali and teenage sprinter Himahs Eashan has clocked below 10.49 seconds in the event and already achieved world junior qualification for the IOC scholarship instead of Jayasekara.
“We will try and find other scholarship for Jayasekara as he is a good prospect but we want IOC scholarship for our best hope for the Rio Olympics,” added Fernando.
Also Gen. Fernando said the scholarship was an idea of the NOC and he simply said the athlete deserved it.
“They (NOC) asked me about him as I met him in Sydney while I was visiting my daughter who lives there. He was good back then and I said he is ok to NOC. I didn’t even know it was an IOC scholarship,” said Fernando.
But the National Olympic Committee (NOC) refused the claim made by Fernando.
“He (Jayasekara) was still a teenager and he is improving and Gen. Palitha himself recommended him stating he has good potential back in April 2013,” said Maxwell de Silva, General Secretary of NOC
“There will be an independent enquiry about this conflict after the Commonwealth Games and prior to renewal of scholarship,” added De Silva. Since the scholarship, Jayasekara who has represented Australia in the Australian youth Olympic event had not taken part in any major championship for Sri Lanka, while he also failed to achieve qualification standard for the World Junior event.
But two Sri Lankan athletes, sprinter Himasha Eashan and triple jumper Vidusha Lakshani achieved qualification standards for the global event and that raised eyebrows again about the big scholarship granted for the expat athlete who has never represented the country.
The said scholarship made a big fuss also in the media as well as local athletics community as athletes with family income of less than a quarter of IOC Scholarship performed better than the expat yet were not considerd even for peanuts by AASL or NOC.
