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| Saturday, 4 October 2003 |
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Wijesundara heads SLA Advisory Board by Dinesh Weerawansa Athletes, coaches, officials, doctors, trainers, physiotherapists, sports administrators and media got-together in a historic meeting with the common goal of boosting Sri Lanka athletics at a special one day open forum held at the National Sports Institute in Colombo yesterday. It was a historic and a significant meeting, probably the first of its kind in the 82-year-old history of Athletic Association of Sri Lanka, one of the 20 oldest national track and field federations of the IAAF. Several important views were expressed by participants and the best would be taken into consideration for the betterment of Sri Lanka athletics. Amongst the speakers who expressed fruitful ideas were Director of National Sports Institute Yogananda Wijesundara, former Sri Lanka ruggerite and athlete Chandrishan Perera, Olympic medallist Susanthika Jayasinghe, AASL President Sunil Jayaweera, National Coach Lakshman de Alwis and Deputy Director of Sports Dervin Perera. Based on the views expressed from various segments of the participants, it was decided to form Sri Lanka Athletics Advisory Board, which would be directly responsible for coaching, training, implementation of policy decisions and other technical matters relating to track and field. The AASL will provide all assistance and resources for the Advisory Board, to be headed by the National Sports Institute chief Wijesundara. Considering various views expressed, the AASL officials decided to appoint reputed medical specialist, Dr. C. Thurairajah as the Specialist Doctor of the AASL. His name was recommended by most of the athletes, including Susanthika Jayasinghe. The Sydney Olympic Games bronze medallist said she is not putting any blame on the Sports Medicine Unit but her genuine intention was to get better medical and physiotherapy service for the athletes. Welcoming a packed NSI auditorium, AASL chief Jayaweera said they are ready to listen to anyone who could bring better views to promote athletics. "We are ready to listen to your valuable ideas. It's not the personality that matters but how Sri Lanka athletics progress. We must put aside all petty differences and rally round to take Sri Lanka athletics to greater heights in the world track and field map," he said. Jayaweera said they always welcome constructive criticism but not the malicious and personality tarnishing campaigns through media. "We are here to serve athletics. It does not matter whether Jayaweera or anyone else heads the AASL. But Sri Lanka athletics must progress. If the AASL membership decide that I should step down, I am ready to do even that. But when I am here, I'm determined to do some work, it's team work that matters," he said. Clarifying some valuable points from the international scene, former versatile sportsman Chandrishan Perera said Sri Lankans have the natural ability but they have been stagnated due to various reasons. Explaining results of an Australian survey, Perera said it has been discovered that Sri Lankans are the most competent in the world at tender ages, considering natural combination of eye, mind and body. "We have the best young ones by 15 years according to the Australian survey. But what happens is from that point, other sportsmen and women of other nations make a rapid progress in training, coaching, nourishment, physical fitness, stamina, career guidance etc. due to superior infrastructure facilities afforded to them. This is where we must pay proper attention," he pointed out. Veteran Yogananda Wijesundara stressed the importance of forming a national junior sports policy for athletes. He said role of a foreign athletic coach for the national team is highly questionable. Taking examples from past, during which Sri Lanka has obtained five foreigners from time to time, Wijesundara said local coaches have shown better results, mainly in sprints. But he said getting down a foreign coach to train our athletes in middle distance running and jumps would be good move. He also said a body under the AASL should be formed for sports counselling so that the athletes are given the best guidance in their careers. He said a coaches council too should be formed to make a collective effort to help the athletes. |
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