NOA program a great success

Chinthana WASALA

The young generation who are to take to the sports and sports administration will have the opportunity to participate in the first ever South Asian Olympic Academy where all regional training related to Olympics will take place in Sri Lanka. This was revealed by the Sri Lanka National Olympic Committee President Hemasiri Fernando at the 10th National Olympic Academy held at the National Holiday Resort in Bandarawela.

Marking a rapid and notable improvement, 13 foreign participants were also present at this year's sessions along with the Lankans to make it a total of around 55.

The National Olympic Academy which started 10 years ago, is conducted by the National Olympic Committee (NOC) of Sri Lanka while Sri Lanka Telecom was the proud sponsor once again. Students from Ruhuna, Sabaragamuwa, Peradeniya, Rajarata, Jaffna and Ocean Universities of Sri Lanka and young boys and girls from India, Maldives, Bangladesh, Nepal and Pakistan were amongst the participants this year.

"I am very proud that we were able to conduct this program for 10 consecutive years. We hope the participants will get the initial taste of Olympics and Olympism," said the delighted NOC President, Hemasiri who is the pioneer for this program.

The program was started specially targeting the university students of Sri Lanka but now it has opened out to all who has an interest in our programs, letting the students to interact with participants from different parts of the country, different professionals like sports officers and sports journalists .

The five-day program included various theoritical and practical sessions which helped the young participants to groom themselves to take up future challenges in sports and sports administration. It has also given the opportunity to share knowledge, culture and fellowship among the participants.

Although the cold and wet weather ruled throughout the days, the sessions went on well. The friendly lecturer, National Olympic Academy Director BLH Perera who shared his knowledge in every way he could, while several other lectures conducted lectures on 'Sports Nutrition' (Dr RMK Ratnayake), 'Management of Sports Injuries on the filed' (Dr C Thurairaja), 'The World of Doping Control' (Dr Ms Shiromi Pilapitiya), 'Contributing to a Positive Society Through Sport' (Tamara Dharmakirti Herath) and 'Sports and Education' (Chanaka Thalpahewa).

Few other interesting lectures were delivered which was very helpful, specially the speeches by the 1958 Asian Games high jump gold medalist Nagalingam Ethirveerasingham, 'Table etiquettes and wine tasting' conducted by NOC Vice President Joseph Kenny which was highly enjoyed by all participants.

All these started after an outdoor workout conducted by Bandarawela Sports Officer Denzil Darling at 7 in the morning. Darling who is one of the friendliest in the field of sports, always tried to cheer up everyone as the cold and misty weather was not the most preferable for some participants for workouts. The 10th Olympic Academy Sessions ended with a field trip on the final day to Demodara Railway loop and Rawana Ella waterfalls.

All in all, the Olympic Academic Sessions played a leading role in blending sport with culture and education, character development and promoting fundamental Olympic principles of fare-play, equality, democracy and peace.

A Tae Kwon Do champion from India, Shristhi Singh who was among the participants, said that she was privileged to have the opportunity to take part in this year's NOA program. The beautiful young lady from Allahabad represented India at the recently concluded Commonwealth Games in the under 62 Kg category and reached the quarter finals.

"This was an amazing experience. We learned about the concept of Olympism but also got the opportunity to interact with the locals as well as participants from other regional countries. All the countries should have this kind of programs but in our region, this is the only Olympic Academy. So it an honor to be a part of this" added smiling Shristhi.

Niroshima Herath another participant at this year's National Olympic Academic Sessions said that the sessions were useful for her in many ways. The undergraduate at the Department of Sports Sciences and Management at Sabaragamuwa University said so after a successful completion of the sessions which contents were highly associated with what she is studying at the University.

"All things were helpful. The opportunity of meeting foreign participants was a great one. We learned much from the professionals who were present here and I think everyone must have got the most out of everything." added Niroshima while thanking the NOC officials.