Sports in North and East gets Minister's attention

The programme which the Sports Ministry commenced with the aim of boosting sporting activities in the rural outskirts was successfully carried out in the North and East.

Several sports development programmes and training camps have been carried out by the District Sports Officials in the North and East during April and June, which proved to be highly fruitful for rural sportsmen and women. This was revealed during an assessment meeting wh held at the Sports Ministry chaired by Sports Minister Mahindananda Aluthgamage.

The special programme was launched by the Sports Ministry as there were no sports personnel from north and east in the national pool over the past three decades due to conflict situation in the areas where the innocent youths had been derived of participating in sports. Football, boxing, karate and taekwondo training camps were held in Jaffna, Vavuniya and Mullaitivu where taekwondo has been proved to be the favourite in the North, having won 14 gold medals in 14 separate events during the period of 38 national sports festivals. The programmes has given them the confidence to grab more medals in other events in the future ministry sourced said. YG