Deshabandu Deshabandhu (; ) is the third highest Sri Lankan honours system, national honour awarded in Sri Lanka. It is awarded "for meritorious service". The title is held by no more than 150 living holders at any time. It is conferred with a citation and ...

National Honours Presidential Secretariate
/ref> Sriyantha Dissanayake (born April 3, 1969), also known as Sriyantha Subashan Abeysekara Dissanayake, is a

Sri Lanka Sri Lanka, officially the Democratic Socialist Republic of Sri Lanka, also known historically as Ceylon, is an island country in South Asia. It lies in the Indian Ocean, southwest of the Bay of Bengal, separated from the Indian subcontinent, ...

sprint Sprint may refer to: Aerospace * Spring WS202 Sprint, a Canadian aircraft design *Sprint (missile), an anti-ballistic missile Automobiles *Alfa Romeo Sprint, automobile produced by Alfa Romeo between 1976 and 1989 *Chevrolet Sprint, a rebadged v ...

athlete An athlete is most commonly a person who competes in one or more sports involving physical strength, speed, power, or endurance. Sometimes, the word "athlete" is used to refer specifically to sport of athletics competitors, i.e. including track ...

specializing in the

100 100 or one hundred (Roman numeral: C) is the natural number following 99 and preceding 101. In mathematics 100 is the square of 10 (in scientific notation it is written as 102). The standard SI prefix for a hundred is " hecto-". 100 is the b ...

and

200 metres The 200 metres, or 200-meter dash, is a sprint running event. On an outdoor 400-metre racetrack, the race begins on the curve and ends on the home straight, so a combination of techniques is needed to successfully run the race. A slight ...

Early life and education

Sriyantha was a champion athlete during his school days at

Nalanda College Colombo Nalanda College () is a Buddhist school in Sri Lanka that provides primary and secondary education for boys.1990 Asian Games ) , nations = 31 , athletes = 6,122 , events = 308 in 27 sports , opening = 22 September 1990 , closing = 7 October 1990 , opened_by = Yang Shangkun , closed_by = Roy de Silva , athlete_oath = Chen L ...

in Beijing. In the

1991 South Asian Games The 1991 South Asian Games (or 5th SAF Games) were held in Colombo, Sri Lanka from 22 December to 31 December 1991.National Sports Council, Nepa"South Asian Games". Retrieved on 16 February 2011 Sports * Athletics * Basketball * Boxing * Foo ...

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 The 1993 South Asian Games, officially the 6th South Asian Games, took place from December 20 to December 27, 1993, in Dhaka, Bangladesh and thus in SAF games history, Dhaka became the first city to host the event for second time. Participating ...

in Dhaka. Sriyantha also represented Sri Lanka in athletics at the

1992 Summer Olympics The 1992 Summer Olympics (, ), officially the Games of the XXV Olympiad (, ) and officially branded as Barcelona '92, were an international multi-sport event held from 25 July to 9 August 1992 in Barcelona, Catalonia, Spain. Beginning in 1994 ...

held in

Barcelona Barcelona ( ; ; ) is a city on the northeastern coast of Spain. It is the capital and largest city of the autonomous community of Catalonia, as well as the second-most populous municipality of Spain. With a population of 1.6 million within c ...

Spain Spain, or the Kingdom of Spain, is a country in Southern Europe, Southern and Western Europe with territories in North Africa. Featuring the Punta de Tarifa, southernmost point of continental Europe, it is the largest country in Southern Eur ...

. 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 Major Deshamanya Duncan M. White MBE, ED (1 March 1918 – 3 July 1998) was a Sri Lankan sportsman. He was the first Ceylonese athlete to win an Olympic medal, winning silver in the 400-metre hurdles at the 1948 Summer Olympics in London, E ...

award on 1 March 1991 presented by Duncan White himself. In 1992, he was awarded the title of

for services to his country by the late president R. Premadase.

References

* * *

External links

* {{DEFAULTSORT:Dissanayake, Sriyantha 1969 births Living people Sri Lankan male sprinters Sri Lankan Buddhists Alumni of Nalanda College, Colombo Olympic athletes for Sri Lanka Athletes (track and field) at the 1992 Summer Olympics Athletes (track and field) at the 1990 Asian Games Deshabandu Asian Games silver medalists for Sri Lanka Asian Games bronze medalists for Sri Lanka Asian Games athletes for Sri Lanka Medalists at the 1990 Asian Games South Asian Games gold medalists for Sri Lanka South Asian Games silver medalists for Sri Lanka South Asian Games medalists in athletics Sportspeople from Colombo Asian Games silver medalists in athletics (track and field)