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by Dinesh Weerawansa

Sri Lanka will soon have the services of an experienced foreign coach to train its athletes, Minister of Youth Affairs & Sports, Johnston Fernando said. In an exclusive interview with the 'Daily News' Minister Fernando said it has become necessary to have a foreign coach to guide Sri Lanka national athletes in keeping with the latest developments in world sport.

Several countries are being considered to find a suitable coach for Sri Lanka but final decision would be taken after next month's Asian championship. Minister Fernando had already discussed the matter with the President of the Amateur Athletic Association of Sri Lanka (AAA), Sunil Jayaweera.

Minister Fernando is keen to groom a fresh set of budding athletes as an investment for the future. It is with this in view that Minister Fernando proposed to form a National Athletic Academy to give a complete training for the future Sri Lanka stars. The first target to build up a strong team for the 2004 Olympic Games.

Sri Lanka athletic officials and Minister Fernando plans to put forward their proposals to seek the assistance of the International Association of Athletic Federations (IAAF), the world governing body for track & field. Sri Lanka's requests for its future development programs would be discussed with the world athletic chief, Lamine Diack, when he tours Colombo next month.

As exclusively stated in these columns, the IAAF President Lamine Diack will be arriving in Sri Lanka next month to be the guest of honour at the closing ceremony of the 14th Asian Athletic championship. Sri Lanka will seek international assistance to find a suitable coach to take over its National Athletic Academy, the brainchild of Minister Johnston Fernando.

"I have already discussed this with the AAA. What we have in mind is to groom a good set of athletes to fill the vacancies in the national team. We must have a good feeder pool. There is plenty of talent around the country.

But what is needed is to spot them early and groom them carefully for the future. This is a programme to generate future Sri Lanka stars," Minister Fernando said.

The Sports Ministry is ready to support the AAA in its endeavour to training country's budding athletes. "We will get down a foreign coach. It wont be a problem to meet the finances. We plan to have the academy at the Sugathadasa Stadium Spots Hostel. The athletes could have residential training when necessary and my Ministry would give all possible assistance to make this a success," a determined Minister said.

Sri Lanka would also seek international assistance to train the local coaches. Sri Lanka will seek IAAF assistance to get about their 30 senior coaches trained at an IAAF Regional Centre in Jakarta. Once the top local coaches get intensive training on the modern training techniques, they could in return go to provinces and put their knowledge into practice. Another 30 to 50 local junior level athletes are to be trained in Patiyala, according to AAA officials.

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