Top Athletes-abroad for training targeting

The cream of Sri Lankan athletes will be sent abroad for training targeting the next South Asian Games 2016, said Sports Mnister Dayasiri Jayasekara yesterday.
With only 3 months for the biggest sporting event in the region, Mnister Jayasekara met with the country’s top athletic coaches yesterday in order to listen to their issues, after which Jayasekara announced he would be providing every need of the coaches and sort out their problems.
“We have money to spend, but the problem is how to utilize them for the necessary causes where it would get good results” said Jayasekara.

He further asked the Athletics Association to pick a super pool, the cream of top notch athletes in the country, to send them abroad to a country like Thailand for training as a short term solution for track issues. This was decided due to the lack of quality tracks in Sri Lanka as Sugathadasa Stadium is too dangerous, while Diyagama too isn’t in good condition.
Also, the minister added, he would take necessary steps to take over the Race Course ground which is under the control of Urban Development Authority now, to further modify it by adding a synthetic track as planned earlier.
“I have asked representatives from the foreign company which is responsible for laying of the Sugathadasa track to come and meet me, and after that I will try to give a solution to the Sugathadasa Stadium. We have signed an agreement as per their law when building this, which is ridiculous.”

Sri Lankan athletics is in a crucial stage. They are to tour India for the South Asian Games next year, which is scheduled to start on 10 January in Guwahati and Shillong in the Assam Province. Sri Lanka hopes to send a strong contingent of about 350 to the neighbouring country. The minister has also put forward a special Cabinet Paper asking to increase the present budget to Rs 250 Million or so to meet the expenses of South Asian Games.
Athletics has been the sport which has won the country’s only two Olympic medals and all Gold medals in the history of Asian Games, which is 10, even though all other sports gets a chance to participate in these Games. At the SAG, athletics had produced 52% of the Gold medals.

As the minister described, it will be vital for the athletes to win medals and show their class in order to work towards a long term plan within the country, where the minister said he would support the AASL to establish three pools – senior, junior and youth – and maintain those pools with long term goals. Also, the minister promised a special payment for coaches during these three months ahead of the SAG, and will introduce a long term plan to sort out problems regarding their financial situation.
“It is important to have a good link between school coaches and National coaches, and a systematic evaluation of athletes who will be identified and trained by school coaches and then handed over to National coaches for further training. We should establish these understandings in order to move forward” said the Minister, who also said he would try to bring back retired javelin thrower Sachith Maduranga to the field, who is just 25-years old and still could do a lot for the country.

Coaches who were present at the occasion presented numerous pressing matters to the minister. They pointed out the lack of equipment at training venues and officers to maintain and control the issue of equipment. Also, it was pointed out the lack of knowledge among coaches and non-availability of literature for them to learn, and coaches pointed out even though senior coaches of Sri Lanka produced Olympic winners like Susanthika Jayasinghe, the new age coaches find it hard to learn those methods and techniques to coach such athletes due to lack of a knowledge base and labs. Also they pointed out the lack of using technical equipment for training and testing athletes in the country. The minister promised to get the required technical equipment as soon as possible.

The Sports Medical Unit was criticized during the occasion. Senior coaches pointed out athletes do not have confidence in the Sports Medical Unit which lacks talented doctors who could treat athletes well, while they also pointed out lack of physiotherapists. Lack of support from the ground staff at Sugathadasa Stadium was criticized and the minister said this has happened due to political appointments and he will personally inform them to perform the duties expected of them.
Today Sri Lanka Athletics is in a deep hole with lack of international medal winners. The country’s ability to secure just one Silver medal during the last Asian Championship confirms the country’s failure on the international stage.

Nevertheless, the five year delay of the South Asian Games was one reason behind that failure, as athletes did not have centre stage to excel and earn recognition. New Minister Dayasiri Jayasekara proved he is trying to create a difference to athletics during his meeting with a number of the country’s top coaches. He also visited the athlete’s hostel, and said he is going to ask for a further budget to start payments to the pooled athletes throughout the year as it used to be earlier. But he said performance at the SAG would be crucial to do all that, and failure here will make it hard for him to allocate bigger funds for projects to athletics.