South Asia's Highest Jumper from Texas

If you have been following the recent articles on The Sidelines, you would have noticed by now the Sri Lanka has a number of record holders at South Asian level, and today's story is also about one who broke the 2.30m barrier - Ushan Thiwanka Perera!

Born on this day in Mahabage, he comes from a very humble background whose love for him was their biggest strength despite their shortcomings. He first schooled at the Karunaratne Buddhist School in his hometown before moving to Maris Stella College from the scholarship and known for athletic excellence.

An Achiever at Sir John Tarbet

With a balanced focus on studies and sports, Ushan excelled at the school level with the guidance of his coach Sanrath Fernando in Athletics, his pet event being the High Jump and was a regular winner at the age group levels at the Sir John Tarbet Junior Athletics Championships. In 2015, he had the honour of winning a Gold medal at the Asian Junior Athletics Championship in Qatar.

After finishing schooling, he was enrolled at Sri Lanka Army to pursue his athletics career and was the National Champion for the first time in 2018 when he beat former National Record holder Manjula Kumara with a height of 2.18m, but was very unlucky to miss the Asian Games that year due to an administrative blunder.

Guidance Under a Legend

Not only did he beat a former National Record holder but he also had the priviledge to be guided under one - the late Dr. Nagalingam Ethirveerasingham. He was instrumental in arranging a training program for him in 2017 seeing his potential and was given guidance to pursue his Higher Education in the USA.

With his academic performances at O/L and A/Ls in addition to his sporting excellence, he was granted a scholarship to Texas A&M University in 2020. This move proved to be the catalyst in his sporting career and his breakthrough year was in 2021 where he broke the 16 year old national records by Manjula Kumara and also the South Asian record, the first to clear a height of 2.30m when competing at the Lone Star Conference.

Once again, he was unlucky to miss out on the Olympics due to administrative negligence. At the time, he was 3cm short of the direct qualification and despite having one of the best results that year, he was unable to compete in the Olympic Selection meet in Uzbekistan.

Life and Beyond

In 2022, he broke the Sri Lanka record for Indoor Men's High Jump, clearing 2.27m. He was a multiple NCAA Division II Champion in Track and Field before graduating from Texas A&M last year. Unfortunately, a few personal setbacks came to haunt him before the Commonwealth Games and Asian Games, forcing him to withdraw from either.

However, Ushan being a father means that family time is the biggest responsibility on his belt but is now pursuing in his Masters and is hoping to spring back into action in the Outdoor events later this year. It would be the author's dream, and his parent's and Ushan's to see him represent Sri Lanka once again and this year's South Asian Games would be the ideal comeback platform as the current South Asian record holder.

Until then, wishing Ushan a happy 27th birthday and looking forward for a deserving comeback!

Here is an interview done on The Sidelines with Ushan back in 2022.