South Asian Games debacle

Sri Lanka managed to pocket just 16 gold medals at the 11th South Asian Games concluded in Bangladesh on Tuesday. The huge Lankan contingent which competed in over 20 disciplines was able to take home a total of 105 medals, including 16 gold, 35 silver and 54 bronze medals.

Perhaps, that may sound impressive for people who have little or knowledge on sport and the real sporting strengths of countries in this region. But for those who have followed the history of the South Asian Games, which was originated way back in 1983, it was hardly anything to crow about.

Our best ever performance in the eight-nation Games for the last 27 years has been the total of 44 gold medals won in 1991 when Sri Lanka hosted the fifth edition of the Games in Colombo. On that occasion, Sri Lanka had a rich harvest, including 15 athletic gold medals and another 12 gold medals in swimming.

Sporting strength

But in Dhaka this time around, Sri Lanka managed only a total of 16 gold medals, which is far below expectations. Even after 19 years, Sri Lanka has failed to win even half of the gold medals it won at the 5th South Asian Games. In other words, Sri Lanka’s ‘sporting strength’ has been reduced more than 60 per cent during the past two decades.

Standards of most sports have gone down drastically. In contrast, even the countries in South Asia have gone past us. Sri Lanka, which has generally been either second or third in the region in most of the previous South Asian Games, has now dropped to fourth place.

In the overall medals standings of the 11th South Asian Games, Sri Lanka secured only the fourth place behind India, Pakistan and Bangladesh. Poor standards of Sri Lanka sport was evident in almost all disciplines as the hosts Bangladesh bagged 18 gold medals to go past Sri Lanka.

Even at the previous 10th South Asian Games in Colombo, Sri Lanka was placed second with 37 gold medals but this time in Dhaka, they fell short 21 gold medals.

Post-mortem

We are not pointing the finger at anyone but merely conducting a post mortem in the best interests of Sri Lanka sport so that the country could learn from the mistakes here and bounce back at the next South Asian Games in two year’s time. Where did we go wrong?

First and foremost, Sri Lanka contingent could not make enough preparations. True that the Sports Ministry allocated over 52 million rupees and helped 23 national sports associations (NSAs) to train their respective national pools. But that was too late and should have commenced much earlier.

We do appreciate the assistance given by the Sports Ministry for the Sri Lanka contingent when it was hard to find a sponsor. But if some of the officials were quick enough in decision making and obtained the same resources a few months ago, there would have been ample time for the sportsmen and women to train and reach peak for the South Asian Games.

But what really happened was officials postponing pool practices due to various reasons and ultimately implementing some ‘instant training’ to pick a makeshift team. We are not saying all the NSAs did this but Sri Lanka would have definitely painted a different picture if we had made early preparations.

Weightlifting

Nevertheless, the performances of Sri Lanka weightlifters and athletes needs praise. In fact all members of the weightlifting team won medals, which is a notable feat.

Sprinter Shehan Ambepitiya’s blistering 100m dash for the gold and to emerge as the fastest man at the 11th South Asian Games is a commendable achievement. His golden feat came at a crucial stage when Sri Lanka athletics has been looking for future material.

With the retirements of our elite athletes such as Susanthika Jayasinghe, Damayanthi Darsha, Sugath Tillakaratne and Sriyani Kulawansa Fonseka a big vacuum was created in the national pool and Sri Lanka faced the tough task of maintaining its Asian sprint supremacy.

Young Ambepitiya filled that void to a great extent with that memorable sprint gold, a dream of any athlete. As we have stated before on many a occasions Ambepitiya is a future Asian medal prospect and needs to be groomed and looked after properly.

If he is given better exposure and proper training under ideal conditions, he could well win a medal for Sri Lanka at the Asian Games. Middle distance runner Chaminda Wijekoon, the overall captain of the contingent, too lived up to expectations but unfortunately, marathon runner Ajith Bandara had to settle for the silver.

We cannot afford to make the same mistake again. We must continue the training process uninterrupted. We are not in a position to relax and idle just because the South Asian Games are over.

Ideal time

It is the ideal time that we pick future Asian level medal prospects and form a national super pool for prospective sports so that a proper training schedule could be implemented under the patronage of the Sports Ministry.

With the next edition of the Asian Games due to be held in China later this year, this is a must. As we regularly point out in this column, there are no shortcuts to success in international sport – hard work, dedication and sacrifice are the vital ingredients that make a champion sportsman or woman.

Hence, we must make a collective and all out effort to go ahead with Sri Lanka super pool for the Asian Games.

What matters is a determined effort to achieve that success. We are not short of raw talent but our medal prospects should be carefully groomed to go for those goals. That definitely would be an investment for the future.