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| Thursday, 1 January 2004 |
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Foreign athletic coaches due in the island next week by Dinesh Weerawansa Sri Lanka athletic team for the forthcoming SAF Games will be picked by the middle of next month. The first meet for Sri Lanka athletes in the year 2004 will be the SAF Games trial meet to be worked off at Sugathadasa Stadium, Colombo on February 14 and 15. A total of nearly 800 athletes are expected to be seen in action at the two-day meet, after which the national selectors would sit to pick the team for the Islamabad Games. Meanwhile the three Ukrainian international coaches hired by Sri Lanka to train the national athletes are due to arrive in by next week. The initial task of Evgene Shvilli, Mykola Baklanov and Dmypto Vanyaikin is to guide the Lankan athletes and their coaches in the lead up to the SAF Games. Athletic Association of Sri Lanka has signed them initially for a two-year period, which would cost Sports Ministry USD 5,400 a month. Star athletes Susanthika Jayasinghe and Damayanthi Darsha, who missed last September's IAAF World Championships in Paris due to leg injuries are expected to compete at the SAF Games in March as they have enough time to return to form. The eight-nation Games would also give Sri Lanka's top athletes to regain their form before the 2004 Asian Grand Prix Series. Sri Lanka will be at full strength at the SAF Games with the return of their top athletes. Besides Jayasinghe and Darsha, Sri Lanka will also have the services of their veteran athletes Sriyani Kulawansa Fonseka, Sugath Tillakaratne, Rohan Pradeep Kumara and Harijana Ratnayake. The third annual Asian Grand Prix Series will also have four meets as last year. The 2004 Asian Grand Prix Series would begin from Sri Lanka. The first of the four Grand Prix meets will be held at the Sugathadasa Stadium on June 19, followed by the other three on June 23 (Hyderabad), 27 (Bangkok) and July 1 (Manila). As hosts, Sri Lanka will get an opportunity of fielding two athletes each for the Colombo Grand Prix while the entry of Sri Lanka athletes for the other three Grand Prix meets would purely be on performance. Susanthika Jayasinghe, Damayanthi Darsha, Sugath Tillakaratne, Sriyani Kulawansa and Rohan Pradeep Kumara have already qualified to compete in their pet events of all four Grand Prix meets. Meanwhile, the International Olympic Committee (IOC) has set June as the deadline to reach the qualifying standards for the 2004 summer Olympic Games in Athens in August. The AASL said Susanthika Jayasinghe (women's 200m), Sugath Tillakaratne and Rohan Pradeep Kumara (men's 400m) have already qualified to compete in Athens. Sri Lanka's men's 4 x 400m relay team is currently ranked 13th in the world and if they remain within the first 16 by June end, they too could compete at the forthcoming Olympics. Of the top Lankan athletes, Damayanthi Darsha, Sriyani Kulawansa and Harijana Ratnayake are yet to reach the qualified standards. But they have a series of international meets before June to qualify. The presence of newly contracted Ukrainian coaches would be a big boost for the Lankan athletes who are down to compete in a series of top international meets this year, including the Olympic Games. The three foreign experts will be assigned to handle different areas to work alongside the national coach Lakshman de Alwis, Shvilli (jumps), Baklanov (middle and long distance) and Vanyaikin (sprints) will take charge of their respective athletes and coaches. They would also be assigned to work in the provincial talent search when the national athletes are out of competition. |
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