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| Wednesday, 4 August 2004 |
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New Manager and Captain for Olympics by Dinesh Weerawansa Major changes have been made in the top posts in the Sri Lanka athletic contingent for the Olympics. The Sri Lanka team is due to leave for Athens on Monday. Former AASL President, Sunil Jayaweera has been removed from post of Manager of the Sri Lanka team for the forthcoming Olympic Games in Athens. The announcement came just a day after Jayaweera and his AASL Executive committee was removed from power after the dissolution of the local track and field governing body and a Interim Committee appointed. Secretary of the new AASL Interim Committee, Commodore Shemal Fernando, the former Royal College and public schools athlete, has been appointed as the new Sri Lanka athletic manager. Joseph Kenny has been re-appointed as the Chef de Mission of the Sri Lanka contingent. Sydney Olympic medallist Susanthika Jayasinghe has been named the overall captain of the Sri Lanka team in her farewell summer Games. The NOC originally planned to point Rohan Pradeep Kumara Fernando as the overall captain, the three-member committee appointed, decided in favour of the 28-year-old women's 200m bronze medallist at the last Games as she gave Sri Lanka an Olympic medal after 52 years. However, the shock dissolution of the Athletic Association of Sri Lanka may prevent five Sri Lanka athletes from taking part at the forthcoming Olympic Games in Athens or being compelled to compete under the IOC flag, instead of Lion flag. Under such circumstances, only the two swimmers - Condrand Francis and Menaka de Silva, and shooter Pushpamali Ramanayake would be able to compete under the Lankan flag. However, the Chairman of the newly appointed AASL Interim Committee, P.H.D. Waidyatillake said there is no such danger and neither the IAAF nor the IOC would penalise competitors. However, experts in the local sports circles said yesterday that there is a danger of the five Lankan athletes either being not allowed to compete or to do so under the unified IOC flag as the world governing bodies do not recognise appointed interim councils. Minister of Youth Affairs & Sports Jeewan Kumaratunga made a surprise move on Monday when he dissolved the AASL with just one week away from the Sri Lanka contingent's departure to Greece. Susanthika Jayasinghe, Damayanthi Darsha, Rohan Pradeep Kumara, Manjula Kumara Wijesekera and Anuradha Indrajith Cooray have qualified to compete in track and field events from Sri Lanka. Sri Lanka had similar problems at the Commonwealth Games in Victoria eight years ago and also at the Asian Junior Championships in 1992. But Waidyatillake said there is no need to be panic and that the athletes would not be penalised under any circumstances. Meanwhile, the new Interim committee of the AASL, headed by P.H.D. Waidyatillake met at the Sports Ministry last morning to draw a plan for their future events. Though they planned to meet at the AASL headquarters at Torrington, they could not do so as the sacked previous AASL Ex-co had locked the premises. But a senior member of the previous Ex-co said they are planning to hand over the keys of the AASL headquarters to Director General of Sports Milton Amarasinghe to officially hand it over to the new Interim Council. The new AASL Interim Committee decided to concentrate more on the national pool making preparations for next year's South Asian Games. They also decided not to sack any of the employees contracted by the previous administration and to continue the good work. |
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