Colombo, Sri Lanka, April 18, 2021: Sri Lankan double international Tilaka Jinadasa has been nominated for the IOC Women and Sport Trophy for 2021.
Jinadasa, 58, has represented the island in athletics and netball. A hurdler, she was the first female Olympian from Sri Lanka, at the 1988 Seoul Olympics, taking part in the women's 100 metres hurdles.
She is also the only Sri Lankan to have represented the country in five consecutive South Asian Games, winning medals in all including one gold, four silver and four bronze, in athletics.
After she ended her athletics career, Jinadasa played netball and went on to represent the country. She was the vice-captain of the Sri Lanka netball team when they won the Asian Championship in 1997 in Singapore.
“I feel it is a great honour and privilege to be nominated for the IOC Women and Sport Award. I have been involved with two sports at the very top level, both as an athlete and an administrator/coach, and my greatest passion in this is my ability to uplift the cause of women’s sport in my country and fight towards equality in sport,” Jinadasa commented.
While she was an athlete, she felt there was a lack of women's participation in sports and decided to become a netball coach to promote women in sports in Sri Lanka.
Under her guidance as an international netball coach, Sri Lanka won the Asian Netball Championship in 2008 and 2018. On both occasions, Sri Lanka qualified to compete at the World Cup Netball Championship in 2011 and 2019.
Her coaching career in netball spans over two decades and has included overseas stints – in 2007 she was sent by the International Netball Federation to India to conduct coaching workshops, and she has also been national coach of Brunei and the Maldives.
Jinadasa is also the first female athlete in Sri Lanka to win a national honour being awarded the title ‘Deshabandu’ by the President of Sri Lanka in 1988.