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| Wednesday, 7 April 2004 |
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Champion athletes to be felicitated by Dinesh Weerawansa President of the Athletic Association of Sri Lanka, Sunil Jayaweera commended the performance of the 50-member Sri Lanka team for the 9th South Asian Games. When the five-day athletic competition ended at Jinnah Stadium , Islamabad, yesterday, Sri Lanka won 12 gold medals, nine silver and three bronze medals in athletics. The hero of the Lankan team is captain Rohan Pradeep Kumara Fernando who led from front with three gold medals in men's 200m, 400m and 4 x 400m. Sri Lanka athletic chief Jayaweera said it was a creditable performance by the athletes and that the AASL will felicitate the champion athletes at a special ceremony to be held at the AASL headquarters on April 23. He said they will present Rs. 25,000 for a gold medallist, 15,000/- to a silver and 10,000/- for a bronze medallist. "We do not have big money to offer, though we like to do. But I hope the Sports Ministry and the National Olympic Committee would offer separate incentives to the medallists," he said. Jayaweera said the AASL's development plan has just started to produce results. "When I assumed office in 2001, I said the results of our development work with juniors would start coming after two years. These are the results. Janu Chathurangani, Manjula Kumara, Indrajith Cooray, Mohammed Shifrath, Upendra Bandara, Sujani Menaka, Prasanna Amarasekera are some of the second string athletes who have excelled this time. There are more to come when we complete our short-term goals by 2006," Jayaweera said. He emphasised Sri Lanka achieved these results during its off season, against athletes from India and Pakistan, who are enjoying the peak of their domestic seasons. Even when Sri Lanka hosted the SAF Games with the best home conditions in 1991, Sri Lanka won 15 athletic gold medals, where as this time they have come so much near with 12 golds to take the second place in the athletic medal standings. India heads the athletic final medal standings with 15 gold medals, 12 silver and 15 bronze. Sri Lanka takes the second place with 12 gold, nine silver and three bronze. In the third place of the track & field medal standings is hosts Pakistan with five gold medals, eight silver and 12 bronze. Nepal is placed fourth with two silver and a bronze and Bangladesh fifth with one silver and two bronze. Afghanistan, Bhutan and Maldives did not win any medals in athletics. |
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