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World athletic chief, Lamine Diack is to visit Sri Lanka next year as local AAA officials have been successful in obtaining international support to uplift the standards of track and field.

President of the International Association of Athletic Federations (IAAF), Diack has accepted an invitation to tour Sri Lanka next January. He is due to arrive in Colombo on January 16 and would also witness a key international meet at the Colombo's Sugathadasa Stadium, according to Sri Lankan athletic officials.

Diack will also be shown the talents of up and coming athletes in Sri Lanka during his stay in Sri Lanka. He would probably be the first ever IAAF President to tour Sri Lanka.

Diack was originally scheduled to be in Sri Lanka last August to be the guest of honour at the 2002 Asian Athletic Championship in Colombo recently.

But he was forced to cancel his tour on medical advice, following a heart attack. However, the Lankan athletic officials had an opportunity to talk to the IAAF President during the 14th Asian Games in Busan, South Korea.

President of the Sri Lanka Athletic Association Sunil Jayaweera and Secretary Prema Pinnawele have had a series of discussions with some of the top Asian and World athletic officials here to obtain support to promote Sri Lanka athletics. Several countries have already expressed their desire to come forward and support Sri Lanka athletics in whatever form they could.

Saudi Arabian Prince Nawaf Bin Mohammed Al Saud, who is also the President of the KSA Athletic Association, has already promised to assist Sri Lanka in coaching, probably to assist the Sri Lanka AAA with the services of a couple of coaches. Under prince Nawaf's able leadership Saudi Arabian athletics has gone from strength to strength within a short period. They came out with their best performance winning seven gold and one silver medal at the 14th Asian Games athletic competition here, a feat no emerging team has achieved.

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Copyright 2001 The Associated Newspapers of Ceylon Ltd.
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