More events added to Carlton Super Cross 2007

Bernard Perera

The second annual Carlton Super Cross 2007 organised by D.A. Rajapaksa Foundation in collaboration with the Tharunyata Hetak Foundation is to be held on February 15,16 and 17, 2008 at Tissamaharama.

Tharunyata Hetak Foundation which commenced this sporting event with the intention of serving the nation's youth population has come up with many novel ideas.

The proceeds of the first Super Cross was completely used to construct a Hospital in Anuradhapura for the benefit of the soldiers who are fighting to safeguard the sovereignty of the country.

This project has been completed fully and further equipment needed will be provided with the finances from this years event, in addition the Tharunyata Hetak has made arrangement to help Jaffna youth this year by providing a swimming pool. These details were disclosed by Namal Rajapaksa at a Press briefing held in Colombo.

Rajapaksa stated that his foundation has thought of giving the opportunity for the rural youth its due place. With this intention in addition the sports programmes they hope to conduct on exhibition to educate the rural youth how to enter the job market according to their abilities. This has become a must as most of the rural youth as they need proper guidance to find employment, he said.

He further added that last year only four sporting events were conducted which became very popular among the people of the South.

This year the organisers have increased the number of events to six adding wind surfing and Rowing to the four sports Motor Cross, Mountain Biking, 4x4 challenge and Horse Racing all of which were conducted at the Ceylon Autodrome in Tissamaharama.

Thusal Gunewardena explaining the wind surfing programme said that they hope to conduct three events. He said that in Sri Lankan this particular sports was confined only to coastal areas.

With so many places with water filled tanks and wind freely available none could take this sport to the interior to help the people living away from the coastal belt. This is the first occasion such a move was introduced by the Tharunyata Hetak Foundation. This is a commendable decision he said.

Amal Suriyage the head of the Mountain Biking Association said that the Foundation has given the opportunity to rural folk to engage in a sport with the least cost. Last year the inaugural meet proved that mountain biking is well picked up by the youth of the country, with participation of over 750 competitors. This year his organisation expect over thousand entries for the eleven events scheduled.

Suriyage said that all support needed to construct a international standard Mountain Biking circuit was made available to them. This resulted in forming a 2 kilometre circuit with seven obstacles to be in par with the international standard on the Ceylon Autodrome, itself.

Richard de Zoysa speaking on behalf of the Motor Racing Association who conducts the Carlton Super Cross that this year too fourteen events for cars and ten events for Motor cycles are lined up. All these events are categorised according to sports governing bodies rules and regulations.

Answering a question he said that as this has been annual event he has made representation to the governing body to consider this event as a part for the National Championship.

As there were no official to brief the media on horse racing Namal Rajapaksa said that in addition to Horse Racing. Horse dancing event will be performed by experts for the benefit of the spectators that is expected to exceed 50,000.

Lalin Jirasinghe another water sports expert spoke on Rowing and said that it was a wise move taken by the Foundation to take the sport into the country side.

He said that distance and laps for wind surfing and other water sports could be decided later considering the wind conditions that will prevail during that period.

Entry coupons for the events will be published in National Newspapers in the due course which are to be closed in the first week of February.