Dervin Perera, former president of the Athletic Association of Sri Lanka and veteran coach passed away yesterday at a private hospital in Colombo aged 67.
Perera, one of the most successful athletic coaches produced by Sri Lanka was elected uncontested as AASL president in 2005.
Among his distinguished achievements as coach was guiding Susanthika Jayasinghe to win Sri Lanka’s first and only IAAF World Championship medal (a silver in women’s 200m) in Athens in 1997 and Sriyani Kulawansa to win the women’s 100m hurdles silver medal at the 1998 Commonwealth Games. Perera is the only Sri Lankan coach to train and produce medallists at South Asian Games, Asian Games, World Championship, Commonwealth and Olympic Games level - a feat will be hard to beat. He held the post of Sri Lanka national coach for seven years with distinction.
As an athlete of distinction among Perera’s personal achievements was winning a bronze medal at the Indo-Sri Lanka athletic meet in 1968, a silver medal in the 4 X 400m relay also at the Indo-Sri Lanka meet in 1968, a bronze medal in the 400m at the Asian championships in Korea 1975 and being national champion in the 400m in 1975. Perera’s belief as a coach is that too much control is bad to the athletes. “Athletics revolves around the natural flair of the athlete, who is working around the very basics, of the event. If we, as coaches, take it more seriously than that, we shouldn’t be coaches,” he once opined. - ST
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