Here is the chance to utilise Rosa’s talent
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Here’s a worthy chance to give the marathon record holder to train our long distance runners
You may have seen a bare-footed sprinter running alongside CTB busses in early 1960s in suburban Colombo areas. Even CTB fellow drivers didn’t know that it’s S.L.B. Rosa is an employee of their CTB workplace.
Running bare-footed, Rosa, collected the bronze award in 1966 at the Asian Sports Festival, completing his marathon in 2 hours and 15 minutes.
But long distance runners of the caliber of Wimaladasa Perera, V.L.K. Samarasinghe, Sriyantha Dissanayake, A.M. Karunaratne were not given the due place in Sri Lanka for them to improve their expertise to show their colours in international arena.
They were looked down upon, I believe. The poor guy A.M. Karunaratne had the potential to be an international long distance runner if he got the real treatment by the sporting authorities at this end. Bare-footed sprinters had never been given a due place for their sporting development domestically, either for themselves or making their full use for Sri Lankan training camps.
Here’s a good chance to get the maximum utility from experienced S.L.B. Rosa who is currently in Sri Lanka for a small stint. He is ready to give a helping hand to sprinters and long distance runners if the authorities would take it seriously. That chance too will exist only till October until he takes wing to the USA where he is domiciled.
Over to you Hon. Minister of Sports – M.A. to follow the footsteps of S.B. who utlised Rosa in 1995 to train athletes.
- Kasturi Warnakula