Madrid IAAF World Cup 2002:

‘I can’t understand why I wasn’t informed’– Susanthika

Olympic medalist, Susanthika Jayasinghe, had been unaware, until yesterday, that her IAAF World Cup bronze was upgraded to a silver more than a decade ago.

Jayasinghe said in an interview with The Island, “I won a bronze in Madrid. Had the winner of the race been disqualified then my bronze would have been upgraded to silver.”

When The Island informed her that the World Athletics had in fact upgraded her bronze won in Madrid to silver years back, she was surprised. She said, “I can’t understand why I was not informed of the silver and was not awarded it,” said the retired sprinter who has two other World Athletics medals against her name apart from the Olympic silver.

Jayasinghe won a silver in the 200 metres of the 1997 Athens World Championships and a bronze from the 200 metres of the 2007 Osaka World Championships.

The 2000 Sydney Olympic bronze Jayasinghe won was subsequently upgraded to a silver after Marian Johns admitted to doping.

Jayasinghe said that she had rightfully received the Olympic silver but admitted that she did not know anything about the World Cup silver until yesterday.

The 2002 Madrid World Cup silver is the only world level medal that Jayasinghe has won in the 100 metres sprint.

Three Sri Lankans, namely, Jayasinghe, Sugath Thilakaratne and Rohan Pradeep Kumara, representing Asia, participated in the 2002 World Cup.

Thilakaratne and Rohan Pradeep formed the Asian men’s 4×400 metres team together with Saudi Arabia’s Hamdan Al-Bishi and Kuwait’s Fawzi Al Shammari. They were placed fourth, but in 2007 it was upgraded to bronze after US sprinter Antonio Pettigrew, who was part of the gold winning US team, admitted to having used performance enhancing drug between 1997 and 2003.

World Athletics and the International Olympic Committee cancelled the gold medals won by US teams involving Pettigrew.

In the women’s 100 metres of that 2002 World Cup, Jayasinghe won the bronze for Asia and finished fourth in the 200 metres. Gold medal in the 100 metres was won by Marion Jones, who was disqualified in 2007 after admitting to having used drugs from 2000 to 2002.

The World Athletics statistics now lists Jamaica’s Tayna Lawrence, who represented Americas, as the winner and Jayasinghe as the second.

Jayasinghe in her interview with The Island expressed shock and disappointment over the failure of the sports authorities to inform her that her bronze had been upgraded to a silver.