New era for Lankan sports

It is less than a month to go for the 16th Asian Games to be held in China. The Asian version of the Olympics is the most looked forward to sports extravaganza in the Asian continent.

The 44 member countries of the Olympic Council of Asia will field the cream of their sportsmen and women for the 16th Asian Games to be held in Guangzhou, China from November 12 to November 27, 2010.

The newest Asian Games venue Guangzhou is the second city in China to host the Games after Beijing, which hosted the 11th edition of the Games exactly two decades ago in 1990. It was at these Beijing Asian Games that sprinter Sriyantha Dissanayake began the revolution of Sri Lanka athletics, winning a silver medal and a bronze in 100m and 200m finals.

Dissanayake was a role model for most of the budding athletes then and his sprint double inspired Sri Lanka to make its athletic revival, with medals at Asian Championships, South Asian Games, Asian Games, Commonwealth and at Olympic Games level.

A total of 476 events in 42 sports will be contested by athletes, making it the largest event in the Asian Games history.

The cynosure of all eyes will be our national contingent which will represent the country at the forthcoming Games. Sri Lanka's recent success at the South Asian Games, Asian Championships and at Commonwealth Games would give fresh hopes for our sportsmen and women at the 15th Asian Games.

Manju's medal a boost

Sri Lanka shot into prominence when boxer Manju Wanniarachchi won a gold medal at the recent Commonwealth Games in New Delhi. He eloquently rewrote Sri Lanka's sports history by winning the men's 56kg bantamweight gold medal.

The final was a keenly contested tussle for supremacy and the Lankan lad eventually out-pointed Sean McGoldrick of Wales 16-14 to open a new chapter in Sri Lanka boxing. Sri Lanka last won a gold medal for boxing at the Commonwealth Games, then known as the Empire Games, in Sydney in 1938. It took Sri Lanka 72 years to win its next gold medal at the Commonwealth Games until Wanniarachchi broke the hoodoo.

Wanniarachchi's win would pave the way for another bright era in Sri Lanka boxing. His win would no doubt inspire more and more youngsters to take to the ring sport and Sri Lanka's chances at the Olympic level in future too would be much brighter.

On the other hand, Wanniarachi's golden feat would add more weight to Sri Lanka's bid to host the 2018 Commonwealth Games in Hambantota, which has already been selected as a venue for next year's ICC cricket World Cup.

Sports for ethnic harmony

Hosting a top level international sporting event of this magnitude could soon be a reality with the infrastructure development in the South, especially in the Hambantota District. With Sri Lanka reaping the dividends of peace and marching towards new economic horizons, sports is one area which could be effectively used to strengthen ethnic harmony and national reconciliation.

World Cup cricket in a hamlet such as Hambantota would never have become a reality if not for the untiring efforts of young parliamentarian and former Sri Lanka Youth rugby captain Namal Rajapaksa. He has taken great pains to promote Sri Lanka as an international sporting destination.

Thanks to his indefatigable efforts, Hambantota will become one of the host cities of the 2011 ICC Cricket World Cup. Similarly, Sri Lanka could be successful in its bid to host the 2018 Commonwealth Games. If we are hosting the Games, we must make the best use of the additional slots our sportsmen and women will be getting. In order to do that, we have to make preparations from now onwards.

As we have constantly stated, there are no short cuts in sports. A gold medalist, or any medalist for that matter, at Olympic or Asian Games level could not be produced overnight. There are no instant methods of producing champions.

They came the hard way

All those who have won Olympic and Asian Games glory have come the hard way to achieve those milestones. Hence, we too must make a proper training to make our hosting of Commonwealth Games more meaningful and capitalize on the ideal home conditions and advantage.

Sprint queen Susanthika Jayasinghe won an Olympic medal for Sri Lanka after 52 years at the 2000 Sydney Olympic Games. For two successive Olympic Games, we have not been able to produce someone even come close to those feats. But we must aim at least to produce another Olympic medalist even 16 years after Jayasinghe's feat.

Perhaps, the 2012 London Olympic Games must be an uphill task, except in boxing and another odd sport, but we could target producing a medalist by 2016 Olympic Games. We must make an investment for the future now and start training a new brigade of sporting stars to go for that goal.

President Mahinda Rajapaksa has shown a keen interest in working towards that goal, giving all necessary support and encouragement to the country's national level sportsmen and women.

The President has already assured the Sri Lanka contingent that the new Mahinda Rajapaksa International Sports Complex at Diyagama, Homagama will be made available to them for continuous training targeting the 2018 Commonwealth Games. The sports-loving President gave this assurance when he met the Sri Lankan contingent and its three medalists in New Delhi last Friday.

Taking cue from the Indian example as the host nation, the President pointed out that India made full use of the favorable conditions as the host nation to double its medals tally, compared to the previous Games. Similarly, the President said, that Sri Lanka too must target a record at the 2018 Games. if Sri Lanka succeeded in hosting the Games.

We must make every endeavor to be consistent in the international sports arena. We must produce at least a couple of gold medalists each at the Asian Games and target the next Olympics and Commonwealth Games. It is an uphill task but well within Sri Lanka's reach if we make a heart and soul effort.