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It's 39 days to go for the 43-nation Asian Athletic Championships to be held in Colombo in August. This is the 11th in a series of articles in the ANCL English language newspapers, which leads the largest ever sporting event to be hosted by Sri Lanka. The Associated Newspapers of Ceylon Limited (ANCL) (Print media sponsor) and Dialog GSM (Sri Lanka team sponsor and the official web hoster) are two of the six Gold sponsors of the event.

Prime Minister Ranil Wickremesinghe will be the chief guest at the opening ceremony of the 14th Asian Athletic Championships to be held at the Sugathadasa Stadium on August 8, commencing from 6 pm. Premier Wickremesinghe will declare the 43-nation Asian athletic extravaganza opened before a three-hour colourful opening ceremony begins on August 8.

Power & Energy Minister and Deputy Leader of the UNP, Karu Jayasuriya will be the chief guest at the closing ceremony of the Asian Championships on August 12 after three days of tough competition. As exclusively stated in these columns on Saturday, President of the International Association of Athletic Federations (IAAF), Lamine Diack will be the guest of honour at the closing ceremony.

Chairman of the Organising Committee of the 14th Asian Athletic Championships and the Minister of Youth Affairs & Sports, Johnston Fernando will grace both the opening and closing ceremonies, along with some of the leading athletic personalities both here and abroad. All past Sri Lanka athletes have been invited to take part in the opening ceremony parade of the meet.

Apart from the world athletic chief Diack, some of the leading world and Asian athletic officials and past athletes are to be present in Colombo for the forthcoming meet. Among them would be the top Indian sports official, Suresh Kalmadi and Asian AAA Secretary General, Maurice Nicholas.

Nicholas is no stranger to Sri Lanka, having visited Colombo twice on fact-finding missions. During his last visit, he has been highly satisfied with the local preparations and commended the efforts made by the local organising committee, headed by Sports Minister Johnston Fernando. Nicholas will make his third such visit by the middle of this month, during the 2002 Sri Lanka National Championship, to be worked off at the Sugathadasa Stadium from July 17 to 20. This will be the final testing of both equipment, organisation network and officials and judges before the Asian Championships.

Relaying of the new Rekottan track at the Sugathadasa Stadium is expected to be completed by the middle of this month and Nicholas would be here for the third time to make a final inspection. His fourth and final visit here will be for the opening ceremony of the Asian Championships on August 8.

The three-hour colourful opening ceremony at the Sugathadasa Stadium would depict the Sri Lankan culture and Asian athletic community. The closing ceremony on August 12 would be of a two hour duration, commencing from 6 pm.

Meanwhile, the entries by name for the upcoming meet are expected to reach Colombo from this week. But the indications are all top Asian athletes would compete in Colombo. Even the 4As Secretary General Nicholas recently indicated that the big names in Asian track & field would definitely compete in Colombo. The Asian Championship would be the trial to pick the Asian team for the World Cup in Madrid, Spain in September and this would inspire all top Asian athletes to make their presence felt.

The Colombo Asian Championship would also give the athletes in the region one final chance to make an assessment of their opponents before the Asian Games in Busan, South Korea later this year. Considering the Commonwealth Games to be held in Manchester later this month, the year 2002 would be a tight one for our athletes, who are currently training abroad.

But the Lankan national athletes would return home this week after a two and a half month-long training in Thailand and Malaysia. The first batch from Kuala Lumpur will return home on Wednesday (3) and the other from Bangkok on Saturday (6).

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