UNSUNG HERO of SRI LANKAN SPORTS – R KARUNANANDA, 1964 OLYMPICS

We know Susanthika, Damayanthi Dharsha, Marion Jones, Michael Jordan but have we heard about R Karunanada. He represented Sri lanka (then Ceylon) in the 1964 Olympics, in the mens 10,000m event.

Karunananda did his best to win a medal to his country, one could see the effort he took to his boot from the beginning and right throughout the race despite the spectators shouts. Finally, he won his battle making the spectators to a standing ovation that exceeded the salutation that the spectators gave to any athlete, and completed the race.

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The Sri Lankan media has forgotten about this great athlete who fought his best to win a medal for his country, a true heroes like Karunananda should be honoured for his efforts made at this race. most of your’l might had not seen the race i am talking about, watch it at the end of this post.

Here is an article i pulled out, that would give one more information about Karunananda; (i don’t know the source of this article 😦  maybe daily mirror)

Those who unwittingly inhabit others’ versions of their realities might find Karunananda in a different way, I realized. If they scanned world cinema, the greatest or the most entertaining flicks, they might come across Ron Ichikawa’s ‘Tokyo Olympiad’ (Tokyo Orimpikku). They would no doubt be amazed to learn that a man who came last in the 10,000m race was also featured among the winners, including the incredible Ethiopian, Abebe Bikila who was the first Black African to win an Olympic gold medal and the first to win the marathon twice in a row. Karunananda didn’t compete in the marathon. He was placed 47th out of 52 in the 5000m race and started the 10,000 with a bad cold and a considerably weakened body. This was in 1964, when athletes didn’t chicken out if they were less than 100 percent fit, a time when athletes were not pampered with sponsorships, employment, vehicles, houses and other gifts.

Karunananda competed because he wanted his little daughter to be happy that he competed, from start to finish. He came last. He could have stopped at any point, it would not have changed anything. He didn’t. He was with the leaders when Billy Mills of the USA breasted the tape. That’s because he had been lapped four times by that time. When he continued, it surprised the spectators. When he came around they jeered. When he came around a second time, there was silence. And then there was cheering. Wild applause. He finished the race to a standing ovation that exceeded the salutation that the spectators gave Mills. Mills is reported to have said that the gold should have gone to Karunananda. Days after the race he still received gifts from sympathetic Japanese. One housewife wrote, ‘I saw you on TV, running all alone and I could not keep back my tears’. He was the original ‘Marathon Karu’ (the subsequent Marathon Karu, better known, died with Jeyaraj Fernandopulle in a suicide attack). The Japanese remember. His story is related to schoolchildren to teach the virtue of determination and the triumph of the human spirit.

Karu was offered a job in Japan. A few days before he was to leave Sri Lanka, he died. Some say he died in an accident. Some say he was murdered. Some say he just disappeared. Years later a Japanese television crew arrived in Sri Lanka to do a documentary on this incredible man. No one knew him. They had been taken to the then ‘Marathon Karu’ by mistake and he had helped the Japanese find the man’s family. Karu’s wife had lost her mind when her husband ‘died’. The family was literally on the street until a kind relative had offered to take care of the children. This is how his own country has recognised him………….! ‘We don’t have to look beyond our shores, ‘We are a nation blessed with our own heroes.’ There’s one in every body in fact. if we want to remember men and women who stood taller than the multitude, then let’s spare a thought for Ranatunga Karunananda.

Bloggers comments >> No wonder we live in Sri Lanka, we usually forget the people who were part and parcel of  our lives  and our country. So, the great Ranatunga Karunananda, i salute you on behalf of all the Sri Lankans as Sri Lankans will remain as Sri Lankans for many years to come.

Lesson learnt — People will drag you down, once your no longer an assert to them.  Selfish indeed !

nb: Daily Mirror and The Sunday Island has some articles on Ranatunga Karunananda