Parami says she is hungry for more
Parami and her family at the reception held at the BIA
It was a fitting homecoming for young Parami Wasanthi Maristella who now has taken the country by storm with her heroics at the 3rd Youth Olympic Games 2018 currently held in Buenos Aires in Argentina.
Parami was placed third in the first stage of the Women’s 2000m steeple chase competition clocking a new personal best time of 6:33.06mins and put herself in a position to become the first Sri Lankan to win a Youth Olympic medal.
Competing in the second stage of the competition, which was a 4km cross-country run, Parami was placed 17th overall clocking 13:47mins. From the participants of the 2000m steeplechase, Parami was placed third with Fancy Chereno of Kenya in the first place (12.51min), Esteh Yego of Uganda in second (13:13min) and Mekides Abebe of Ethiopia in third (13:21).
Her eyes were steely when she arrived at the Katunayake International Airport yesterday morning and it just I have more surprises in store in my little torso. Her first words were “I always knew in my heart that one needs to put in a lot of hardyards to reap the real benefits. Yes, I made a lot of sacrifices and now I see that I have reaped the harvest.
From Susanthika to Parami ...... A little advice on how to conquor the international athletic domain
“I remember running behind my elder sister Nishanthi Dilhani on the beach in front of our compound and there too I always wanted to win ….. I think there was a little athlete in my always. I must say my coach Janith Jayasingha was the source of inspiration behind my success and it is he who even saw it that I was given the necessary financial backing that was needed for my training.”
However Parami’s sister Dilhani gave up athletes after school.
Parami comes from a rugged fisher background in the Chilaw region. Father Anthony Tudor is a fisherman while mother Rita Margret Silva is marvel who does everything possible to eke out the rest of the money that needed to feed a family of two athletes. Rita confessed “Parami never had a new pair of spikes. She always used her elder sister’s old ones, which were slightly tight on her. So always she used complain of shoe cuts. There were umpteen occasions that Parami used to leave for school only after a glass of water….but she never complained. Always she knew what squalor meant and she lived by that.”
Coming back to Parami she says that her next goal is gold at the Asian Junior Athletics meet in 2020. But, at the back of her determination she says “I am looking for a medal at the 2024 Olympics”.
Parami with her Bronze
Parami with her mother Rita and father Tudor