Introducing Sumedha Rathnayake: Sri Lanka’s invincible female cycling champion

By Surya Vishwa

To meet Sumedha is a privileged experience. To meet her and speak to her in detail gives one an uncensored glimpse of what human perseverance really means – what it is to overcome adversity by the tenacity of willpower; to keep going even when it seems as if the race of life seems to be receding backwards and your bones are about to give way and the thirst is folding up your tongue into parched fragments.

Rathnayake Mudiyanselage Sumedha Kumari Rathnayake is a veteran Sri Lankan cycling champion and also the gold and bronze winner twice over of the pioneering 600 kilometre international race; Race the Pearl, in Sri Lanka launched in 2020, where local and international cyclists, ride from Dondra Point to Point Pedro. 

She is now about to prepare for the Race the Pearl tournament for this year to be held in the first week of November. The race starts from Point Pedro (Peduru Thuduwa) of the North in Jaffna and ends in Dondra (Devundara Thuduwa in Matara) in the South in Sri Lanka, linking the nation and putting the island on the world map of sports as a route to boosting tourism. It facilitates being a platform for other international sports bodies to emulate and innovate further in the realm of sports and tourism to encourage improving the welfare of rural sports persons. 

“The Race the Pearl event is the longest cycling race of its kind to be introduced to Sri Lanka which has international participation and where men and women both compete. Usually cycling marathons held so far locally have a distance of 100 kilometres and usually have mostly the Tri Forces personnel taking part,” explains Sumedha.

Traveling across the country for 600 kilometres non-stop can test your entire endurance levels to hitherto untested heights,” she states. She is known for not resting even briefly at the designated stops for cyclists to take a short break if they wish to and thereby saving time to finish the race fastest.

It is apparently very rare that a cyclist can summon the strength to cycle almost non-stop continually for 600 kilometres. Mind power over the race of life in general and cycling particular is something Sumedha has mastered at a very young age.

In one race, having been very seriously injured and needing an operation in the head, she was up on her feet within three days and ready to take to the road again!

“Willpower is the strongest gift a human being can give himself or herself in this life. Once a person chooses the passion he or she has for any cause, he should pursue it. Sports is often pursued by rural men and women in Sri Lanka and much needs to be done to support these individuals. I know first-hand the difficulties some of them go through as I myself have gone through such trials,” she states. 

The Race the Pearl event that is to take place shortly is modelled after world cycling events such as Race Across America, as a world-class South Asian cycling event that in the long run may even have the potential to be extended as the Tour De France held over 21 days. Although it gives no cash prize or sports related or any other incentive to the winners or participants, it provides exposure to global and local cyclists. It is this exposure that makes them somehow find the race participation fee which stands at $ 165. 

A significant factor for Sumedha is that she was the only Sri Lankan competing against experienced global cyclists. With a cycling history of over 20 years, Sumedha has won 1st place amongst the female cyclists and third place from the overall race, competing with men. Thus she won two gold medals in 2020 and 2021 respectively in the female category and a Bronze in the overall competition. All participants of the Race the Pearl event receive a certificate of participation.

She finished the 600 kilometres in 2020 in 34 hours and in 2021 in 27 hours. This year she hopes to complete the race in 24 hours.

How is it to cycle from one end of the country to another, through daybreak, past midnight and approach dawn on wheels under an open sky?

“The Race the Pearl was one of the best experiences I have had. The event begins from Point Pedro in Jaffna, proceeds through Elephant Pass, Vavuniya, Madawachiya, Mihintale, Maradakadawala, Dambulla, Mahiyanganaya, Bibile, Moderagala, Suriyawewa, Matara and ends in Devundara.”

A significant factor for Sumedha is that she was the only Sri Lankan competing against experienced global cyclists. With a cycling history of over 20 years, Sumedha has won 1st place amongst the female cyclists and third place from the overall race, competing with men. Thus she won two gold medals in 2020 and 2021 respectively in the female category and a Bronze in the overall competition. All participants of the Race the Pearl event receive a certificate of participation

“Speaking as a Sri Lankan it is a fantastic experience to cycle out through the diverse cultures and the people of this country. As a Sinhalese I especially find it a beautiful experience to start the race in Jaffna and have the Lankan Tamil citizens cheering for me in the North and assist me with food and drink. The same beauty of acceptance and encouragement I have seen in diverse areas that are populated mostly with Sri Lankan Muslims or Christians,” she recalls. 

“I have not travelled to the North of Sri Lanka much but this race enabled me to do so twice over. It was a simply wonderful experience to commence the race from Point Pedro in Jaffna.”

“I do not stop at the allocated race route points where cyclists can unwind with some rest as they have food and drink. Instead I opt to eat and drink on the move,” she says.

Hailing from the village of Digampathaha in Dambulla cycling has been a lifelong passion that began in her early teenage years. Having taken part in the Mahaweli region competitions and many other rural and urban cycling events, she has won gold medals, often competing against Army, Navy and Air Force personnel. 

Mostly vegetarian she states that she does not follow any of the rigorous diets sometimes prescribed for sports personnel. 

“I believe that the rural Sinhala diet is one of the best invigorating sustenance that a sports person can have and I have been following it from birth,” says Sumedha, known for a high resilience to disease. 

“Where I was born and live in with my husband and children is a rural hamlet with very limited facilities. In a cycling race, especially one that is stretched out for 600 kilometres there are many requirements. This includes having at least two vehicles for the support team that travels behind each rider, such as the coaches and those who provide first aid, nutrition, motivation and medical advice as needed. I always struggled with requirements such as these. Last year Prof. Thishan Jayasinghe provided a vehicle through the lobbying of Dr. D. Suriyarachchi, a promoter of cycling who has helped me immensely. Last year Dr. Jayasinghe also provided the complete quantity of the needed fuel. This year we have so far with some difficulty found one vehicle. Normally two vehicles are needed as the support team ideally has to be split into two segments and travel separately but we are not sure owing to the country situation whether we will be able to obtain this support and especially the fuel,” she says.

Dr. D. Suriyarachchi is a cyclist and provides especially the technology backing for promoting Sumedha internationally. Priyantha Wijesundara, veteran cyclist and official of the Cyclists Federation is her coach who has provided her with invaluable advice over the years and stood by her in all vicissitudes of the race. 

Anyone wishing to support this cyclist champion to take part with adequate facilities that will enable her to do even better than the previous years could contact Dr. H. Sooriyarachchi on the following phone number – 0777 654810.

The Race the Pearl event as it stood in the previous years offered no prize money or any sports related incentive to any of the participants, although offering the recognition of taking part in the tournament through the certificate given. 

From 12 riders in its launch edition in 2018, the participation has systematically increased to almost 50 riders and is expected to increase much further this year, despite the downturn in tourism. All age categories are entitled to part in the race and has included participants in their 60s and 70s.

The Race the Pearl event through its route covers the Buddhist and Hindu culture of the country, giving power to the message – ‘Unity in Diversity’ through a significant number of towns covering Buddhist, Hindu, Christian and Muslim heritage of the nation spanning over 600 km, beginning in the tip of the island – Point Pedro in Jaffna, the district which is home to the historic Nallur Kovil. 

At a time when much global publicity is given to exaggerated accounts of disunity and the negativity in Lankan society which could be argued as being present in every society, including Western society, the Race the Pearl event gives foreign participants and all visitors to the event opportunity to glimpse first-hand the positive side of the reality of Sri Lanka’s unity. 

The race route is selected so that it borders wildlife parks that are home to Sri Lanka’s exotic wildlife; leopards, elephants and glamorous peacocks, making it a unique experience for both locals and foreigners. This event shows the potential for Sri Lankans to conceptualise innovative sports related events that will look at promoting the economic welfare and potential of sports persons while at the same time supporting the concept of national unity.

“I would like to specifically mention that rural Sinhala, Tamil and Muslim sports personalities should unite to create new opportunity for sports in Sri Lanka and which will place this country in the international arena. We especially need to showcase the immense tourism potential of the country and share the images of reality as life is lived in the country which many do not get to see. The real peace of Sri Lanka as we see in everyday life has to be witnessed in more and more activities like the Race the Pearl event and give power to that positivity. Innovated upon creatively such events can boost the economy of the country,” states Sumedha. 

She believes that the power of sports is overall under-used in the world, in the quest for global peace, innovation and prosperity.

She finished the 600 kilometres in 2020 in 34 hours and in 2021 in 27 hours. This year she hopes to complete the race in 24 hours

“Any sports event is a human victory by itself and represents much more than an individual win. Ethics in sports is one of the main things one should focus on and the cultivating of a holistic view of participation,” she states, calling for the education sector in Sri Lanka to give more recognition to the power that sports has to create strong and ethical leaders for the nation.

“The joy of being alive is beyond rote learning, wealth accumulation, and sports highlights this aspect,” she states.

The Harmony Page initiative of the Daily FT and Weekend FT will look at the scope of featuring sports champions such as Sumedha at the international academic conference of the Vavuniya University themed ‘Harmony and development through knowledge and innovation towards nation building’ that is to be held in 19 and 20 January 2023, in collaboration with the university authorities. 

It is our firm belief that what we give energy, to becomes powerful, and that if we give energy to any negativity in society, especially in media, that what stands out as powerful and influences further negativity is that particular evil. Hence the initiative of the Harmony page was started as a mainstream media innovation to integrate many facets of wellbeing and showcase the strength of Sri Lanka and to use that strength to bind people of this nation together. We will continue in this pursuit in the weeks to come in a stronger manner and enable voices rarely featured in the Sri Lankan mass media to emerge and especially give power to all that is indigenous and traditional.

Note: In our next week edition we will feature the story of cycling champion Lakmal Dissanayake focusing on a life story in sports that has honoured humanistic compassion based ethics, rather that strictures of ethics or glory of victory.