University Games from Oct 1

Dinesh De Alwis

The 10th Sri Lanka University Games (SLUG) will be held at the Sri Jayawardenepura University premises from October 1 to 10. Over 5000 sports men and women from 14 universities will be seen in action for 22 disciplines.

The opening ceremony is scheduled for October 1 at Sri Jayewardenepura University Ground at 3 pm with the Prime Minister D M Jayaratne as the Chief Guest. Higher Education Minister, S B Dissanayake, Economic Development Minister Basil Rajapaksa, Education Minister Bandula Gunawardane, Member of Parliament and Chairman, Tharunyata Hetak Foundation Namal Rajapaksa will be present as guests of honour.

All arrangements are set for the opening ceremony, while preliminary round of certain sports have already been conducted throughout this month. We hope the weather will not trouble us” Acting Director Physical Education Asoka Amarasena told the Daily News.

The SLUG was started at Peradeniya University in 1980 and it is held every three years. The last games was held in the Kelaniya University in 2007.

In the 1st SLUG there were only 12 disciplines but it has increased to 22 events by the year 2010.

They include Badminton, Baseball, Basketball, Carrom, Chess, Cricket, Elle, Football, Hockey, Karate, Netball, Road Race, Rowing, Rugger, Swimming, Table Tennis, Taekwondo, Tennis, Track and Field, Volleyball,Weightlifting and Wrestling.

Parrot is the mascot for this year’s Sports Festival. The WebCast of SLUG can watch accessing www.sjp.ac.lk from October 01 -10 at 8.00am to 8.00pm.