| Sports |
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| AAASL looking to curb athletes from going astray |
| By Harry Jayachandra |
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| Some of those defamed Lankan athletes taking a ride inside the notorious “blue bird”. |
Last year the sport of athletics was tainted by both doping and criminal scandals. Thus this year the Amateur Athletic Association of Sri Lanka (AAASL) has decided to focus on eradicating such issues.
President of the AAASL, Major General Palitha Fernando speaking to The Sunday Times said; “We may never be able to completely remove to stigma attached to athletics following the incidents that occurred last year. But we certainly intend to try. Our main focus this year is on discipline and of course development. We brought down foreign experts to educate our athletes on the side effects of substance abuse. In addition it was emphasized to these athletes that even if they win a medal, it will count for nothing as they know in their minds that they did not deserve to win. It has got to be a level playing field with individuals winning on merit, rather than because they had an illegal edge over their competitors.”
He added; “We have allocated one million rupees this year for drug testing alone. And we plan on carrying out drug tests not only during competitions, but at random times while in training as well. Even though there is a recession, we have not been affected because both Sri Lanka Telecom and Mobitel have agreed to sponsor all our events. And we do have a packed calendar starting next month with the under distance and over distance competition. This competition is self explanatory in that if a particular person is good at running between 60 and 150 metres, we check how well that person does over a 30 metres and 200 metres. We have the World Youth Games coming up in Singapore in June and we must submit the names of our squad by the end of next month.”
With regard to development; Fernando said; “We are working on several fronts. We started a pilot programme in Kalutara which is almost complete. This particular programme will not only benefit athletics but other sports as well. For example if a particular child has good leg strength, he could take part in football. While a child with strong arm muscles could turn out to be bowler in cricket. Once the programme is ended, we will select the best 25 to 30 kids and enable them to under go more advanced training. The problem we have encountered is the lack of infrastructure and facilities in the districts. Basic items such as skipping ropes, these districts do not have. The AAASL purchased 25 skipping ropes for the pilot programme.”
He added; “On a more positive note, we have a number of athletes coming through like Keith De Mel, Shehan Ambepitiya and Chandrika Subashini. What people have to understand is that we cannot replace athletes like Susanthika Jayasinghe and Damayanthi Darsha overnight. The athletes that are coming through the system have to be trained and given time to mature.”
“However, at the end of the day to take the sport forward we need qualified coaches, especially those who train juniors. We already conducted a level two programme for coaches and plan on starting a level one course tomorrow where we hope to have at least 200 individuals attending. |
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