Sriyantha Dissanayake

Deshabandu^[1] Sriyantha Dissanayake (also known as Sriyantha Subashan Abeysekara Dissanayake) is a Sri Lankan sprint athlete specializing in the 100 and 200 metres.

Early life and education

Sriyantha was a champion athlete during his school days at Nalanda College Colombo in the late 1980s. He became national champion at the age of eighteen and went on to win this honour 6 more times.

Career

Sriyantha Dissanayake won a silver and a bronze medal in 1990 Asian Games in Beijing and brought pride to Sri Lanka. In the 1991 South Asian Games held in Colombo he won gold medals in both the 100 metre and 200 metre events. In addition, he gained two more gold medals and a silver in the 1993 South Asian Games in Dhaka. Sriyantha also represented Sri Lanka in athletics at the 1992 Summer Olympics held in Barcelona, Spain.

He is arguably the best male sprinter to come from his island being the only Sri Lankan athlete to have won a 100 metre medal in the Asian games.

Honors

Sriyantha Dissanayake is Sri Lanka's first ever recipient of Duncan White award on 1 March 1991 presented by Duncan White himself.

In 1992, he was awarded the title of Deshabandu for services to his country by the late president R. Premadase.

References

• "Olympic Medal-New Duncan White Memorial pins hopes on Susanthika By Annesley Ferreira". Sunday Times. 20 September 1998. Retrieved 17 December 2011. 

• "Commendable advancement in sports". Sunday Observer. 2007-02-04. Retrieved 17 December 2011. 

• "Dissanayake Sriyatha". IAAF. 1996–2009. Retrieved 17 December 2011.