Twelve foreign instructors for Budo Camp

Bernard Perera

The seventh Budo Camp in Sri Lanka is to be held from October 2- 8 at the Blue Water Hotel in Wadduwa, this was disclosed at the press briefing held at the same venue on Monday by The chief organizer of the event Olaf van Ellen.

Ellen explaining about the event said that this year Sri Lankans will get the opportunity of having the services of 19 Instructors from six foreign countries while there are seven from the host country.

The foreigners are from Germany, England, Switzerland, Belgium, Chaina and Canada. These instructors represent different styles of martial arts.

"The motive behind this Budo Camp is to part with their knowledge of various styles of martial arts among Karatekas who are engaged in types of the sport" said Ellen. Speaking further he added that Budo is not a style of martial art. But it's a Japanese word for the sport."

"As such anyone interested in mastering and learning the art can participate in this Camp. Martial Arts is a sport that is helpful to persons to inculcate his mentality, character building and also at the same time they can engaged in it as a sport for the benefit of the persons health."

"This sport can also be used as a method for a man's self defence when the neccessasity demands it. Sri Lankan Martial Artists can gain lot experience from these sort of camps as there will be many new techniquescoming from instructors who are representing many styles of this sport."

Answering a question he said "Sri Lankan instructors are of international class and they too will be invited for future Budo Camps to be held in other parts of the world. Last year a total of 38 foreigners participated along with 250 from the host country.

This year he said that 58 foreigners inclusive of 19 instructors will be arriving here and the organizers expect a record number to participate from Sri Lanka. All past six Bubo Camps were held on beach resorts of Negombo and Marawila North of Colombo."

"The foreigners who will be arriving in the island are spending from their own purse for the cause. This proves that their main purpose is to serve the sport generously and also to part with their knowledge on it." He finally said that " this is a fine opportunity for all martial artists to come together to make good use of this occasion.

This kind of programs too will help your countries Tourism Industry in a big way. The instructors who are arriving in the island will be visiting the other parts of the country as tourists. They will spend around one week extra in this manner and sure to experience the beauty of the country and are sure to promote the country's image as a tourist destination to colleagues in their native countries."

Hiran Cooray the Managing Director Blue Water Hotel which hosts the event said that this is an opportunity that will help the sports men and women of the area who involved in martial arts. We are here to host the foreigners for their generosity towards our country.

They will be here not only as visitors but also to part with their knowledge with our local sportsmen and women. So it has become one of our duties to give our maximum to our locals too. Local Martial Artists of the area will be looked after by us during the Camp.

This is sure to bring us good results in the future to all Sri Lankans. He further added that Hotel management is thankful to the organizers for selecting Blue Water Hotel from the south of Colombo for the seventh Budo Camp and requested all involved to give their best to make this a big success.

The foreign instructors arriving are Andy McGill (England) hristian Wiederanders (Germany), Rainer Grytt (Germany), Hans-Joachim Moller (Germany), Bodo Muri (Switzerland) Heinz-Jurgen Nab (Geemany), Horst Baumhurtel (Switzerland),Leo Bijnens (Belgium), Olaf van Ellen (Germany),Lutz Winter (Germany). Local Instructors - Nimal Fernando, Peter Perera, Daya Samarasekera, Renil Fernando, H.M. Sisirakumara, W.S. Nilantha Wickramagalle and Saman Bandara.