Tharjini Sivalingam in action against Singapore at the finals
After ending two years of suspension triggered by political pressures, Sri Lankan netball player Tharjini Sivalingam returned with a bang, playing a crucial role in her native country’s memorable victory to be the Asian champs for 2018.
Tharjini, the tallest netball player in the world with an unusual height of six feet and 10 inches (2.08 m), mesmerized the Singaporean opposition with her sharp shooting skills, helping her nation to emerge victorious in the final game played in Singapore recently.
Thirty-five-year-old Tharjini who was born in Jaffna and an economics graduate of the Eastern University of Batticaloa recorded an accuracy of 93 per cent, and according to a commentator ‘she did not have to work too hard because of her height’.
‘Tharjini Sivalingam is four inches taller than the American basketball player Lisa Deshaun who is touted as the tallest sportswoman in the world’
Coach Thilaka Jinadasa gave up a lucrative training assignment in oil-rich Brunei deciding to return to her homeland to take over the responsibility of shepherding the girls, some of whom like Tharjini who she herself discovered, to another Asian championship. Sri Lanka has emerged as the Asian champs on four previous occasions in addition to becoming runners up four more times.
It was during Tharjini’s first year at university that she was discovered while representing the Batticaloa district at a netball tournament in Vavuniya in 2004. After that she came down to Colombo to join the National Netball Team the university authorities were accommodating as she had to go to Batticaloa only for her examinations, relying solely on self-studies to pass her exams.
Tharjini who was born in Jaffna in the farming village of Punnalaikkadduvan with a population of 200, towers over six feet and 8 inches (2.08 m) in a country with the average height of a Sri Lanka male is recorded at 5’ 4.5’’ (1.636 m) while a woman measures only 4 feet 11.2 inches (1.514 m).
Tharjini is not so far included in the list of world’s tallest athletes. American basketball player Lisa Deshaun Leslie who is five inches shorter than Tharjini is ranked the tallest woman athlete in the world.
The top ten list include Russian tennis player Maria Sharapova (6 ft. 2), US volleyball player Gabrielle Reece (6 ft. 3), Canadian high jumper Nicole Forrester (6 ft. 3), basketball star Candace Nicole Parker – sister of Anthony Parker – (6 ft. 4), Croatian high jumper Blanka Vlasic (6 ft. 4) and long distance swimmer Yvetta Hlavacova (6 ft. 4.5) also from Croatia.
The male side of the story is quite different. Tallest top ten starts from 7 ft. 2 Polish basketball player Margo Dydek, and ends at late Canadian wrestler Edouard Beaupré who towered 8 ft 3.
Tharjini who faced discrimination in school as a result of her unusual height was part of the national team as the vice captain winning the 2009 Asian Netball championships and became runners-up in 2012.
This year Sri Lanka beat Singapore 69-50 to win their first Asian title since 2009 qualifying for the 2019 Netball World Cup to be held in Liverpool, England. The world No.1 spot is held by Australia while Sri Lanka ranks 24.
Tharjni who speaks fluent Sinhala, was adjudged the best shooter in 2011 World Netball Championships despite the team’s first round exit. In 2014 she was sacked from the team due to political reasons and was out of the team for two years.
Her highest achievements include the Second World Highest Goals Shooter (98%) in World Championships and as the Asian Record Holder in Goals Shooting (96%) at the 7th Asian Netball Champ in 2009. On her overseas assignment she has played for Valencia and Xenith Sports Clubs in the Maldives. In 2016 she played for City West Falcons and St. Albans in Melbourne, 2017-2018.
Netball was first introduced to Sri Lanka in 1921 with the first game played by Ceylon Girl Guide Company at Kandy High School. By 1952, Sri Lankan clubs were playing Indian club sides and in 1956 played its first international match against Australia in Sri Lanka. The highest rank Sri Lanka reached in World Championships was nine in 1963. In 2015 the country was placed 16th in the championship played in Australia. – newstrails.com
