Anuja Prakash interviews Chundikuli’s favourite sportwoman Selvagowry Retchakan as part of the series of stories in commemoration of the 125h anniversary of Chundikuli Girls’ College. Selvagowry Retchakan was an outstanding athlete at school who showed exemplary talent Jaffna, nationally in Sri Lanka and went on to win a Silver medal for Great Britain at the Commonwealth Games in 1998 and represented Britain for 400m Hurdles at the Barcelona Olympics in 1992.

Anuja is a freelance blogger. She is a second generation Chundikuli girl, an honour student and Headgirl (1990) during her time at school. She now lives in Toronto, Canada with her husband , two children and an inseparable Cockapoo.

“In hindsight, Chundikuli was ahead of its time in empowering all their students to achieve whatever they excelled in without any preconceptions”.

Q: Give us some of your memories of the annual inter-house athletic meets at school. In your time, Page house was notable for coming first.

A: First thing that comes to mind is my sister Varah and I belonged to the same house - Page. However, our friends Selvarajah and Rajaratnam’s daughters; and Sabanathan girls, belonged to different houses and we all trained mostly together. Having said this, it meant we had to find different running colleagues for relays and to ensure that Page House did well. Looking back, what this brought out was the team spirit within the houses and working together towards a common goal – doing our best and getting more points!

Q: From all your experiences in competing, in retrospect, what strategy best worked for you to overcome failures and keep going?

A: How would one define failure? That again is subjective to each person. An Olympian feels a failure for not getting a medal, as does a veteran who fell short of the usual time for a 10km run.

In my case, I tried not to use the word failure - more like disappointment, or could have done better. Most importantly, I learnt a lot from under-performance. Losing a race taught me more than winning; as one does not really analyse a performance after winning as much as one does a below par performance! (E.g.: watched the race with my coach to work out reasons; as well as tweaked the training schedule to achieve perhaps fine tuning in technical aspects).

Q: What challenges did you face in Jaffna at that time when preparing yourself to be a national level athlete? How did you manage to overcome them? How did the school support your endeavours?

A: It may sound strange, in terms of sporting culture, what prevailed in Jaffna in the mid-70’s, seem more inclusive with limitless opportunities than what I perceive now to be.

Also, in addition to supporting parents, Mrs. Champion of course was the pillar of our achievements at that time, with not only her coaching, but consistent mentoring which at that time we all thought was “strict”!

In hindsight, CGC was ahead of its time in empowering all their students to achieve whatever they excelled in without any preconceptions.

Q: What physical amenities do you think young athletes in Jaffna need today to start building a national level career in athletics?

This is a tough question. I am not fully informed about what is currently available, however, assuming it’s similar to what I remember from a couple of years ago, then one just needs to start with the basics, which is already there in most big schools; namely, running grounds, equipment like jumping pit, field events equipment etc. Perhaps regional schools might benefit by having access to these with supervision and coaching.

Especially in athletics, one does not need everything available to begin the sport, because what we assume to be our progression may not be what is actually reaped with training during that first phase. Its always good to have what is needed for that phase, and then depending on the outcome, you can equip for the next phase of progression.

So, to begin with, I would say what we have currently is more than enough in terms of physical amenities. What is truly important is a mentor, who sees the athlete as they are, with their abilities and weaknesses, and progress from there. We also need a multi-disciplinary coach who can for example spot an athlete with cognitive skills, i.e., good eye-hand coordination and then perhaps introduce them to another sport i.e., basketball or table tennis or even cricket for instance. What is most important is exposure to many different sports as possible before the athlete settles on what is best for them.

For example, I was a 100m Hurdler whilst in SL, and also in the UK for a while. I was good, but not good enough at national level. Did not have the speed to compete at that higher stage. Then my coach at that time, Jim Alford, also trained 400m hurdlers and he asked us to clear the track of all the hurdles one winter’s night at Tooting Bec Running track. It was so cold, that I decided just to run the 200m barriers and then bring them back on my return. He must have watched and the next day he said, “Gowry, let’s try 400m Hurdles”. Never looked back after that. Though I did not have the explosive speed needed for the shorter barriers, I later realized that I had enough endurance to keep it going till the end for the longer race. He spotted that. This was at age 26! It’s never too late.

Selvagowry Retchakan at the District Sports Meet, Jaffna Central College Grounds, Jaffna.

Q: Outside of athletics, any special memories of your time at school? An incident or event, a person who influenced you in your time there?

A: Nothing unusual for me… well, exam times were tough! Unlike my younger sister Varah who was and is very clever, I had to keep up with her achievements in studies. Not easy, but I got by! In terms of teachers who come to mind, to name a few, Mrs. Chelliah, Ms. Jeevaratnam and Mrs Champion, were very proactive and caring teachers and mentors at that time; they were in my view prepared and focused to propel the school towards the future (not that I realized this at that time).

Q: Would you agree chundikuli’s culture and environment helped you adjust easily when you stepped out of Jaffna and competed nationally and internationally, with fellow competitors from diverse backgrounds?

A: Absolutely true.

As an athlete, you are only good as the pond you swim in. The wider exposure to national competitions does make one more critical of ourselves and seek improvements.

My first ever international was in Bangalore (aged 15). Although I do not exactly remember the race I remember the atmosphere and the different ways of approaching a race i.e. warm up, and the coaches and the athletes and talking to them was an experience I had never had before.

On a lighter note, my father felt I was far too young to go on my own with other Colombo athletes, and of course he had to accompany me, which was a bit of a dampener!

The reason I mention this is because our culture is such that in spite of mine being progressive parents at the time, much like most parents they also tended to be overly protective.

Q: What are the most important values you carry with you as an international athlete? How do these values resonate with the learning at Chundikuli?

A: The values and ethics one learns in any high-level sport, is also applicable to what the core attributes tend to be in one’s career or profession. These are transferable skills and attributes. Our school anthem speaks for itself “Forward be our Watchword….. Seek the things before us, not a look behind…”

Q: Talk a bit about the importance of family support besides having a supportive community to grow and be an athlete of this calibre.

A: My parents, especially my father was very supportive in both his children’s endeavours. For me, it happened to be athletics. Once he realized I just enjoyed hurdling, he got books no internet then!; talked to coaches and every visit to Colombo was coupled with an afternoon on the track with some coach or the other. He was very progressive in that aspect and we were both lucky that he chose a school that nurtured our interests and talent.

Q: What does retirement look like, for this Olympian with roots from Chundikuli?

A: Well unsure if you mean retirement from athletics, or work!

Yes, I have given up my day job and intend to spend time in Kandy/Matale where we are hoping to live. Currently serving my 14 day quarantine! It is not that far from Vaddukoddai where my parents are, in comparison to all the other places I have lived so far! Looking forward to finally living in Sri Lanka after so many years, and to assimilating and more importantly live in a community I have not experienced before. A few “to do” bullets on my list.

I still run and bike for pleasure and also do other sport including yoga, which I took up about 10 years ago, and learnt to swim 4 years ago. So not retired from sport, as yet!

Q: CGC has always hailed you as one of their high achievers and one of its most favourite students and athletes. The school features you on their website too. She counts you as one of her proud legacies. How do you feel about this?

A: It’s humbling.

There are a lot more students who have made a difference in science, commerce and education and another example are those who have been fundraising for CGC tirelessly, and been so attached to it since leaving, which I have not entirely been good at.

Q: I am sure the current students would love to hear what you may have as advice for them. Any words of advice?

It will be presumptuous of me to think I can advise them, as no doubt they may have better advice for me!

Since you ask, what has benefitted me along the way has been trying to think outside the box; not limiting myself to what is expected by others, or for that matter myself; always one step at a time as the bigger picture can sometimes be daunting; be open to new ideas and challenges; to be free in one’s thinking; and finally, an active imagination always helps as an adult!