Carlton Super Sports on a grand scale

BERNARD PERERA

The third annual Carlton Super Sports Festival organised by Tharunyata Hetak Foundation will be conducted on February 27, 28 and March 1 at the Ceylon Autodrome Complex at Tissamaharama. This was disclosed to the media at a press briefing held at the Mount Lavinia Hotel by its national organiser Janaka Sri Warnasinghe.

Warnasinghe speaking said that earlier the event was named as Carlton Super Cross but with the addition of more events the Foundation decided to change the name to 'Carlton Super Sports'.

He said the main theme of the festival was to give the youth of this country the opportunity to prove their abilities and to improve them to serve the country in whatever possible ways.

Towards this goal the Foundation has done a yeoman service for the youth of this country. While helping them the Foundation also undertook the responsibility to serve the Armed Forces generously.

The first target was to build a fully equipped hospital for the benefit of soldiers sustaining injuries in the battle front. This costs Rs. 100 million which was the proceeds from the first Super Cross held in the year 2007.

The proceeds from last year's event will completely be utilised to construct a swimming pool in Jaffna Central College. This was one of the most important necessities for the youth of Jaffna. The construction work on this has already commenced and hopes to complete the project by May, said Warnasinghe.

Speaking further he said that this year's proceeds are to be used for the education projects for the youth of this country. As promised by the foundation the projects have yielded good results.

These results were gained mainly through the sponsors who have joined to help these good causes.

Warnasinghe said that this year there will be seven sporting disciplines lined up to be worked off during three days of activity. The events are mountain biking, horse racing, windsurfing, water skiing, rowing, motocross and the 4x4 challenge.

Horse racing

Suranjith Premadasa, the President of the Equestrian Association who is keen in promoting horse racing here said that horse racing got the opportunity to go down south mainly because of the Carlton Super Cross which commenced two years ago. The people of the province was highly convinced and are looking forward to watch races once again. This year around 35 horses are expected to compete here and he thanked the owners for their entry in support of this event.

Mountain biking

Mountain biking is a sport that caught well with the rural folk in Sri Lanka, said Amal Suriyage, President of the Mountain Biking Association. He thanked the Tharunyata Hetak Foundation headed by Namal Rajapaksa who paved the way for his Association to take this sport to the Southern Province through this Carlton Super Cross in the year 2007.

This novel sport was taken up by the youth of this area seriously as we also had the fullest co-operation of the Education Ministry to conduct seminars and workshops to educate the youngsters about the sport.

He said that in the previous years the participation was very high and expect nearly 1,000 competitors at this event. The organisers of this event hope to conduct events for boys and girls under 10, 13, 16 and 19 open and the veteran event on a 2 km track laid specially for mountain biking. He said that the under 10 event will be conducted as a mixed event for boys and girls.

He also added the entry coupons will be published in national newspapers could be used to send in their entries. Already the schools of the Southern Province have been informed about the entries and requests school authorities to give the organisers a helping hand by keeping the participants informed about the event.

The main sponsors of the Carlton Super Sports are National Lotteries Board and Bank of Ceylon. There are many other organisations as co-sponsors for the events.

4 x 4 challenge

Navin Premaratne explained the programme for the 4 x 4 challenge events planned for jeeps. This event is a thrilling one for participants as well as for spectators.

Previous years we saw the enthusiasm of everyone in the area, as such we decided to include a special event for drivers engaged in safari tours in Yala and Uda Walawa.

The organisers hope to conduct three events for safari, standard and extreme drivers. He also said that these events will be conducted simultaneously to give the spectators the fullest enjoyment through this event.

Windsurfing

Thusal Gunewardene who heads the water sports segment said that he hopes to conduct three events. He said though they planned to conduct water skiing on Tissa tank, due to unavoidable circumstances could not do the same.

This year we will definitely go ahead with the event in addition to wind surfing, said Thusal.

Devaka Seneviratna, the rower from Colombo Rowing Club said that they too hope to conduct three events including an event for ladies.

Already many teams have confirmed their participation, added Devaka.

Motor Racing Association Chief Richard de Zoysa explaining about the main event of the festival - motor racing said that all leading drivers and riders have sent in their entries to compete at this meet.

He said that with a view to giving the fans to have a good view of the races the track distance has been reduced to 3.8 km from its original 4.2 km.

There will be seven races arranged for the cars in different classes, while there will be six events for motorcycles of different categories.