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by Chris Dhambarage

Over four thousand sportsman and sportswomen will be vying for honours in the twenty seventh National Sports Festival which will commence in Kurunegala today.

The Sports Festival is organised and conducted by the Ministry of Tourism and Sports and will be continued until September 15. The Prime Minister Ratnasiri Wickremanayake will be the chief guest for the opening ceremony which will take place at the Welagedera Stadium. In addition the Minister of Tourism and Sports Lakshman Kiriella, Minister of Land Development and Minor Export Agriculture Salinda Dissanayake, Minister of Sports North Western Province Niranjan Wickremasinghe and the Chief Minister of North Western Province S. B. Navinna will also grace the occasion.

The Sri Lanka Army, Sri Lanka Navy and Sri Lanka Air Force will produce a cultural display along with the students of the Maliyadeva Girls School and Maliyadeva Model School.

A total of fifteen sports events will be worked off during these five days at eight different venues. Commonwealth Games silver medallist Sriyani Kulawansa and Teheran Asian Games gold medallist W. Wimaladasa has been selected to light the traditional Olympic torch on the opening day.

In fact Sriyani Kulawansa of North Western Province was selected as the most outstanding sportswomen at the previous Sports Festival while Rohan Pradeep Kumara of Western Province was named as the most outstanding sportsman last year. Another significant feature is that Olympic medallist Susanthika Jayasinghe will be seen in action for the first time in a meet outside Colombo after her record breaking feat in Sydney when she competes in the women's 100 metres dash schedule on the final day of the festival.

In addition a total of 38 sportsmen and sportswomen will represent the Jaffna district in this sports festival.

The 38-member Jaffna District team comprises athletes, boxers and table tennis. A total of 212-member team will be representing the North-East Province at the festival.

Last year Western Province clinched the overall championship with a total of 68 gold medals, 49 silver medals and 42 bronze medals. central Province were the runners up with a total of 27 gold medals, 37 silver medals and 30 bronze medals. North Western Province were placed third with a total of 26 gold medals, 20 silver medals and 17 bronze medals.

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