Vijitha Padmini Amarasekara, who represented Sri Lanka at the 1992 Barcelona Olympic Games in the javelin throw event created history by being the first Sri Lankan Woman to compete in a throwing event.
Born at Niwatuwa near Warakapola on December 30, 1961, she had her early education at Niwatuwa Maha Vidyalaya.
After having shown some prowess in athletic events while at school, she first competed at the National Athletics Championships in 1980 under the guidance of Coach H. K. Somarante.
At the 1982, National Sports Festival, she won the discus throw event registering a distance of 30.19m and gave up that event thereafter while switching on to the javelin throw event.
In this event she established a new record of 39.48m in 1984. By 1990, she had improved this record to 51.82m. At the Asian Games in Beijing, China in 1990 she registered a distance of 53.68m and was placed fourth.
Vijitha won a Bronze Medal at the 1985 South Asian Federation Games (SAF) in Dhaka, Bangladesh with a performance of 37.88m. She was placed seventh at the 1986 Asian Games in Seoul, South Korea where
she recorded a distance of 44.76m.
She then won the Bronze Medal at the 1987 SAF Games in Kolkata, India with an effort of 37.86m and went on to set a new SAF Games record of 53.06m in 1989 in Islamabad, Pakistan.
However, Vijitha had to be content with the eighth place (49.44m) at the Eighth Asian Athletics Championships in 1989 held in New Delhi, India. She came back strongly to secure fourth place at the 1990 Asian Games in Beijing, China with an improved performance of 53.68m.
Thereafter, Vijitha produced a fine performance to win the Bronze Medal at the Ninth Asian Championships with a distance of 50.90m in Kuala Lumpur, Malaysia.
She won another Gold Medal at the 1991 SAF Games in Colombo while clearing a distance of 49.00m.
But at the 25th Olympic Games in Barcelona, Spain, she was unplaced due to an injury.
In the early stages of her career she was coached by Lakshman de Alwis, S. M. G. Bandara and later on by Dervin Perera.
She was attached to the Janatha Estate Development Board (JEDB) and left for the US for a training course prior to the Barcelona Olympic Games.
(C.D)
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