Sri Lanka Army honours big names in athletics
View(s):Setting a valuable example to its parent body, the athletic wing of Sri Lanka Army held a felicitation ceremony to honour the big names in athletics at the Musaeus College auditorium in Colombo last week. The felicitation ceremony was held to coincide with the Golden Jubilee of Army athletics.
Olympic silver medalist Susanthika Jayasinghe, a former Army SC athlete, was one of the guests in attendance - Pic by Susantha Liyanawatte
While Sri Lanka Athletics Association (SLAA) would have been the ideal entity to conduct a felicitation ceremony, it was the Sri Lanka Army athletics wing that spearheaded the trend, in fact. In other words considering the amount of athletes the Army has nurtured and produced during the past 50 years, it wouldn’t have been irrelevant of who did it. This is evidently because up to 90 percent of top athletes were produced to the national stream by the Army. Some of the greats that were felicitated were big names from Susanthika Jayasinghe to Nadeeka Lakmali and from Derwin Perera to Susantha Fernando. Sri Lanka Army made sure they did not neglect a single stakeholder and ensured all, ranging from Olympic medalist to technical officials to coaches, receive due recognition.
A swarm of former Army athletes and coaches who brought honour to Sri Lanka and helped others to achieve accolades from the era of 1950s were also recognised at the ceremony. Some of the coaches to be honoured were Derwin Perera, A.J. Rodrigo, Susantha Fernando and even the late Parry Liyanage and N. Vairavanathan.
The launching ceremony of the book ‘History of Army Athletics’ also took place at the same event. The first copy of the book was presented to Minister of Sports Mahindananda Aluthgamage by the Army Commander Lieutenant General Daya Ratnayake, who was the former President of SLAA. A host of former Army Commanders and top officials of SLAA were present at the event, including its incumbent Secretary Prema Pinnawala and former President Sunil Gunawardena who admired the effort of Sri Lanka Army.
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