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Another champion in the making

by Dinesh Weerawansa

Golf is one of the very few sports that has brought Sri Lanka medals at the Asian Games. There was a time the sport here was confined to the so-called affluent and elite but only a few of them brought international fame. It was caddie Nandasena Perera who revolutionised Sri Lanka golf by winning a silver medal at the Asian Games in Beijing, 1990. And now, another champion golfer is in the making.

Lalith Kumara, who won back to back titles at the All-India open and Pakistan open amateur championships, is Sri Lanka's new golf star. Having emerged runner up at last year's Sri Lanka open Amateur championship, 25-year-old Kumara won the Bangladesh amateur open last month and seems to be making winning a habit, even without a proper coach to guide him in the big league. He has teed off for over 15 years and is presently a start marshal at the Royal Colombo Golf Club.

Those have been sole 'qualifications', which were coupled with his raw talent, to win three international open titles. Surely, young Kumara has much more to offer. Kumara says his final target as an amateur is to bring Sri Lanka a medal at the next Asian Games in Doha, Qatar in 2006. It is up to everyone here to rally around him and give him the best possible support in whatever aspects possible and carefully groom him for the future.

Sugath and Darsha off the track

The Sri Lanka team for next month's South Asian Federation Games will be sans two 'gold mines' after the failure of sprinters Sugath Tillakaratne and Damayanthi Darsha to qualify when the national selectors named a 50-member team for SAF Games.

The selections were made after a two-day special trial meet, during which three new Sri Lanka records were established. Darsha did not take part at the trials due to an injury and thus, will miss the SAF Games. She missed last year's IAAF World Championships in Paris due to the same reason and one wonders how she is going to train for the Athens Olympics.

Having won her third Asian Games gold in Busan, 2002, Darsha said her target is the women's 400m gold at Olympics 2004. But the consistent injury problems may force her out of the track altogether.

It is the almost identical situation for Tillakaratne, the 1998 Asian Games men's 400m gold medallist. Having failed to find a place in his pet event for the SAF Games, he will be only a member of the men's 4 x 400m relay team to the Islamabad Games. Injury worries in the last two years seem to have taken its toll on Tillakaratne.

The 'Norton Bridge power house' seem to have lost his old touch. At the same time, it is encouraging to see some improved performances by emerging athletes at the SAF Games trial.

Rosayro's recommendations

Former Sri Lanka player and ex-national coach, Dennis de Rosayro has written to us after reading the remarks we made in this column under 'Humiliation at Asian hockey'.

He has sent us a copy of a letter that he had sent to then President of the Sri Lanka Hockey Federation in 1999 as Chef de mission of the 5th Men's Asia Cup tournament in Malaysia. A veteran in local hockey arena, Rosayro has been the President of the Mercantile Hockey Association for the last 26 years.

In his letter to the SLHF chief five years ago, Rosayro had made several important recommendations, to which local hockey officials have hardly paid any attention. Amongst the points he had highlighted as recommendations for future were contacting a top qualified coach, formation of a 18-21 year age group junior national pool and sponsorship for the players through services teams and leading mercantile establishments, grooming of a feeder pool to the national team to fill vacancies in the Sri Lanka team, professionalism at the national hockey governing body (SLHF), training for local coaches under an expert foreign coach, exposure to local umpires at regional level etc.

But one wonders whether any of those recommendations were even considered. As a national player, national coach, manager, international judge and a veteran hockey official, the recommendations made by Rosayro five years ago still stands. If the SLHF had implemented even half those proposals, our hockey would not have dropped to such a low ebb. The humiliation we suffered at the recent Women's Asia Cup is plenty of food for thought for the new administration at SLHF.

SLTA scores again

Sri Lanka last week hosted its first of ten international tennis tournaments lined up for this year. It is heartening to see some of Sri Lanka's top teenage players doing well at the 21st ITF Junior Under-18 tournament. Thanks to the untiring efforts made by the Sri Lanka Tennis Association, its President Suresh Subramaniam and executive committee, Colombo has become a regular destination in the international tennis map.

British Council

www.imarketspace.com

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www.continentalresidencies.com

www.ceylincoproperties.com

www.ppilk.com

www.singersl.com

www.crescat.com

www.peaceinsrilanka.org

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