KLF Wijedasa, in The Island, 3 February 2021, with this title “A Historic Day for Ceylon”
After 400 years of Western domination Ceylon, as Sri Lanka was known gained Independence on the 4th of February 1948. Heralding the occasion four athletes from the four corners of the Island brought four scrolls to the Independence square to be handed over to the Prime Minister D.S. Senanayake to be read for the public to hear.
The four reputed athletes represented the four communities. They were Oscar Wijesinghe (Sinhalese), Lakshman Kadirgamar (Tamil), Mohamed A Sherrif (Muslim) and Duncan White (Burgher). Arriving at the Independence Square they handed over the scrolls to young females representing the four communities. Swarna Amarasuriya (Sinhalese), Srimani Ramachandran (Tamil), Ayesha Zally (Muslim) and Phyllis de Kretser (Burgher). In turn the four damsels handed over the scrolls to the Prime Minister who read them over the public address system.
It was indeed a happy coincidence that in the very same year Sri Lanka made her debut at the greatest sporting spectacle in the world, as an independent nation. A team comprising three athletes and three boxers represented the country at the XIV Olympic Games in London 1948. No one ever dreamt that any of the participants would ever win a medal at the greatest sports festival after the Second World War. In the final of the 400m Hurdles event Duncan White of Sri Lanka, though beaten by Roy Chocran, USA to second place. lowered the existing Olympic record skimming over the hurdles in 51.8 secs. Thus getting the first medal to Independent Sri Lanka at an international sporting event. Commenting on the breath taking performance, the President of the Sri Lanka Olympic Association said that “White has done more for Sri Lanka in 51.8 secs than all the propaganda over 100 years”. This athlete was none other than one of the athletes who brought the scroll to the Independence Square on 4th February 1948.
Duncan White proved that his performance at the London Olympics was not a flash in the pan at the British Empire Games in Auckland New Zealand in 1950 (now known as the Commonwealth Games). His noteworthy performance of 52.5secs not only won the gold medal and the Empire Games record, but was just outside the world record for the event by one fifth of a second.
Subsequently the other three athletes too performed well for the country. Oscar Wijesinghe and M.A.M. Sherrif represented the country at the British Empire Games along with Duncan White. Oscar Wijesinghe, a Public Schools athlete, representing the University of Ceylon won the 100m at the All India and Ceylon Inter University Championships. He established a Sri Lanka record in the 100m in 11.0 seconds in 1949 (The writer too equalled this record in 1955).
Lakshman Kadirgamar won the 110m Hurdles event at the Public Schools Meet and later won the Nationals in 1951. At the All India and Ceylon Inter University Athletic Meet too he won the above event. He finally became the Foreign Ministers of Sri Lanka.
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NOTES
- KLF Wijedasa was an accomplished sprinter and was senior to me at Peradeniya University in the late 1950s. He, too, represented Ceylon in Athletics with some success.
- Lakshman Kadirgamar was assassinated by the LTTE in 2006 — the sniper using the neighbouring house of a Royal College man, a former cricketer at that, one Thalayasingham (who does not appear to have been complicit because he was mostly immersed in drink according to gossip).
LIMITED BIBLIOGRAPHY
https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Lakshman_Kadirgamar
Philip Gourevitch “Killing Kadirgamar,” 22 August 2005, New Yorker, https://www.newyorker.com/magazine/2005/08/22/killing-kadirgamar
The Independent in UK: “Lakshman Kadirgamar: The Tamil who took on the Tigers,” https://www.independent.co.uk/news/world/asia/lakshman-kadirgamar-the-tamil-who-took-on-the-tigers-305931.html
Tamil Guardian: “Man arrested in Germany over Kadirgamar Assassination,” 17 January 2019, https://www.tamilguardian.com/content/man-arrested-germany-over-kadirgamar-assassination