Kobala Vithanage Damayanthi Dharsha-Kobalavithanage (born 13 February 1975) is a retired

Sri Lanka Sri Lanka (, ; si, ශ්‍රී ලංකා, Śrī Laṅkā, translit-std=ISO (); ta, இலங்கை, Ilaṅkai, translit-std=ISO ()), formerly known as Ceylon and officially the Democratic Socialist Republic of Sri Lanka, is an ...

n athlete who competed in the

200 __NOTOC__ Year 200 ( CC) was a leap year starting on Tuesday (link will display the full calendar) of the Julian calendar. At the time, it was known as the Year of the Consulship of Severus and Victorinus (or, less frequently, year 953 '' Ab ur ...

and

400 metres The 400 metres, or 400-meter dash, is a sprint event in track and field competitions. It has been featured in the athletics (sport), athletics programme at the Summer Olympics since 1896 for men and since 1964 for women. On a standard outdoor runn ...

race events. She is the current Asian Games record holder in women's 200m event and current Asian Athletics Championships record holder in women's 400m event as well as national record holder in women's 400m. She is regarded as one of the greatest track and field athletes to have represented Sri Lanka at international level alongside her teammate Susanthika Jayasinghe. She is also regarded as the most successful Sri Lankan athlete at the Asian Games with a medal haul of four medals including three gold medals and became the first Sri Lankan female athlete to clinch three Asian Games gold medals. She represented

Sri Lanka at the Olympics Sri Lanka first participated at the Olympic Games in 1948, and has sent a delegation to every Summer Olympic Games except for the ` 1976 Games and has never participated in the Winter Olympic Games. Sri Lankan athletes have won a total of two Ol ...

on three occasions in 1992, 2000 and 2004. She also represented

Sri Lanka at the Commonwealth Games Sri Lanka have participated in all but three Commonwealth Games The Commonwealth Games, often referred to as the Friendly Games or simply the Comm Games, are a quadrennial international multi-sport event among athletes from the Commonwe ...

on four occasions in 1994, 1998, 2002 and 2006 as well as at the

South Asian Games The South Asian Games (SAG or SA Games), formerly known as the South Asian Federation Games (SAFG or SAF Games), is a quadrennial multi-sport event held among the athletes from South Asia. The governing body of these games is South Asia Olympic C ...

on four occasions.

Biography

Dharsha was born on 13 February 1975 in Panadura. However, she along with her family moved to her father's hometown in

Ampara Ampara ( si, අම්පාර, ta, அம்பாறை) is the main town of Ampara District, governed by an Urban Council. It is located in the Eastern Province, Sri Lanka, about east of Colombo and approximately south of Batticaloa. Hi ...

at her young age. She pursued her primary education at the Ampara Bandaranaike Maha Vidyalaya for a brief period of time. She along with her family returned to Panadura mainly due to the threat of

LTTE The Liberation Tigers of Tamil Eelam (LTTE; ta, தமிழீழ விடுதலைப் புலிகள், translit=Tamiḻīḻa viṭutalaip pulikaḷ, si, දෙමළ ඊළාම් විමුක්ති කොටි, t ...

which emerged in 1983 and she initially attended St. John's College for one year before transferring to Panadura Balika Maha Vidyalaya. She started competing in track and field events since the age of 13 in 1988 after joining the Panadura Balika Maha Vidyalaya. She was coached by former Sri Lankan Olympian Sunil Gunawardene. She also obtained scholarship to join the

Ladies' College, Colombo (Latin) , motto_translation = This is the victory, even our faith - 1 John 5: 4 , location = 66 Sir Ernest de Silva mawatha, Colombo 7 , country = Sri Lanka , coordinates = , pushpin_map = Sri Lanka Colombo Municipality , pushpin_image ...

in 1991 due to her success in athletics at the school level competitions. She married Eranda Siriwardane in 2003 and has three children.

Career

She gained her first international experience at the 1991 Malaysian Open. She made an initial impact at just 16 years when she won the

100 metres The 100 metres, or 100-meter dash, is a sprint race in track and field competitions. The shortest common outdoor running distance, the dash is one of the most popular and prestigious events in the sport of athletics. It has been conteste ...

gold medal at the 1991 South Asian Games in Colombo with a new record. She broke into the limelight by winning the 100 metre gold at the Asian Junior Championships in the same year. She also eventually won the national titles in both women's 100m and 200m events at the 1991 National Athletics Championships. She was chosen to represent Sri Lanka as a first-choice athlete at the 1992 Summer Olympics at the age of 17 and became the youngest Sri Lankan to compete at the Olympics. She also became the first Sri Lankan schoolgirl to participate in the Olympics. The 1992 Barcelona Olympics also marked her maiden Olympic appearance and she competed in the women's 100m and 200m events. Following the 1992 Olympics, she participated in an invitational athletics meet in Malaysia and secured gold medals in 100m and 200m events in the competition. In the same year, she received the Duncan White Trophy. In 1993, she attended a special training session in Australia. She claimed her first international medal during the 1993 Asian Athletics Championships securing a silver medal in the 200m event with a timing of 23.29 seconds. She claimed gold medal in the 100m event at the 1994 Asian Junior Athletics Championships and set a new Asian Junior Championships record in the women's 100m event with a timing of 11.42 seconds. During the same Asian Junior Championships, she claimed silver medal in the women's 200m event and finished just behind Susanthika Jayasinghe. She won the bronze medal in the 200 metres behind Chinese Taipei's Wang Huei-Chen and teammate Susanthika Jayasinghe at the 1994 Asian Games in Hiroshima. That was the beginning of a dominant period for Sri Lanka in women's sprinting with Jayasinghe and Darsha seriously challenging the Chinese. She had a remarkable run in 1998 claiming three gold medals at the Asian regional competitions. She claimed her first gold medal in her career in the women's 400m event at the

1998 Asian Athletics Championships The 12th Asian Championships in Athletics were held in Fukuoka, Japan in July 1998. Medal summary Men Women Medal table See also *1998 in athletics (track and field) External linksGBR Athletics {{asian athletics champs Asian Athlet ...

and followed it up with gold medals in women's 200m and 400m events at the

1998 Asian Games The 1998 Asian Games (), officially known as the 13th Asian Games and the XIII Asiad, was an Asian multi-sport event celebrated in Bangkok, Thailand from December 6 to 20, 1998, with 377 events in 36 sports and disciplines participated by 6,554 ...

. At the 1998 Asian Games, she also set Asian Games record in women's 200m with a new record of 22.48 seconds. She made her second appearance at the Olympics in her athletic career in 2000 after failing to qualify for the

1996 Olympics The 1996 Summer Olympics (officially the Games of the XXVI Olympiad, also known as Atlanta 1996 and commonly referred to as the Centennial Olympic Games) were an international multi-sport event held from July 19 to August 4, 1996, in Atlanta, ...

. She was also the flag bearer for Sri Lanka during the opening ceremony of the 2000 Sydney Olympics at the age of 25. She also held the record for being the youngest ever Sri Lankan flag bearer at the Olympics until it was surpassed by Milka Gehani at the

2020 Summer Olympics The , officially the and also known as , was an international multi-sport event held from 23 July to 8 August 2021 in Tokyo, Japan, with some preliminary events that began on 21 July. Tokyo was selected as the host city during the ...

. She defended her 400m title at the 2000 Asian Athletics Championships with a new Asian Championship record of 51.05 seconds and also claimed gold medal in the 200m event during the Asian Championships in the same year. She also successfully defended her 400m gold medal at the 2002 Asian Games in Busan. She claimed bronze medal in the women's 4 × 400 m relay at the 2002 Asian Athletics Championships. In addition, she also joined the

MAS Holdings MAS Holdings, the largest apparel tech company in South Asia, is among the most recognized design-to-delivery solution providers in apparel and textile manufacturing across the world. The company was founded in 1987 by Mahesh, Sharad and Ajay Amal ...

in 2003 as a senior HR executive. She made her third and final Olympic appearance at the 2004 Summer Olympics. Her last international appearance for Sri Lanka came during the 2006 Commonwealth Games. In July 2007, Dharsha announced her retirement from athletics. She represented Sri Lanka along with former veteran cricketer

Mahela Jayawardene Denagamage Praboth Mahela de Silva Jayawardene ( si, දෙනගමගේ ප්‍රබෝත් මහේල ද සිල්වා ජයවර්ධන; born 27 May 1977) is a former Sri Lankan cricketer who is the current consultant coach ...

in a ten-team celebrity street cricket game during the

opening ceremony An opening ceremony, grand opening, or ribbon-cutting ceremony marks the official opening of a newly-constructed location or the start of an event.

of the

2019 Cricket World Cup The 2019 ICC Cricket World Cup was the 12th Cricket World Cup, a quadrennial One Day International (ODI) cricket tournament contested by men's national teams and organised by the International Cricket Council (ICC). It was hosted between 30 May ...

. In 2021, she contested in the elections for the post of Vice President of Sri Lanka Athletics Association and was elected as the Vice President of Sri Lanka Athletics Association. She also became the first female Vice President of SLA and was appointed as the head of the women's sub committee of Technical Officials and Media.

International competitions

References

External links