Winning SAG medals is the responsibility of the Sports Development Dept.
National Olympic Committee (NOC) President Hemasiri Fernando says that the amount of medals won or lost at the South Asian Games in Assam, India should be the responsibility of the Sports Development Department and their top officials.
This was in response to a question posed by the Sunday Times.
High jumper Manjula Kumara (second from left) leads the Sri Lanka team for SAG
The 12th SAG will be held after six years from February 5 to 16 where 23 sports events will take place between eight countries. 2672 athletes will be involved in this mega event informs the South Asian Organising Committee. From Afghanistan 254, from Bangladesh 409, from Bhutan 87, from the Maldives Islands 184, from Nepal 398, from Pakistan 337, from Sri Lanka 484 and the host country India 519 will be involved in this 17 day event.
Hemasiri Fernando has been the President of the Sri Lanka National Olympic Committee for 20 years since 1996.
Hemasiri is also the President of the Commonwealth Games Association of Sri Lanka. He is also the vice president of the Asian Region Commonwealth Games Federation. He is a national level rifle-shooter and has represented Sri Lanka at the Asian Games. He has been a top level administrator in the government since 2004.
“Sri Lanka’s contingent for the SAG is over 750. This includes observers, masseurs, doctors etc. This is a total waste of public funds. I have observed the preparations during the last four months. In my frank opinion only 150 need to go to the SAG. This is the main event in our region. Our performances are graded from this sporting event. If we had trained for a year at least, we could have expected good results.
“At the Colombo SAG in 1991 Sri Lanka performed extremely well, winning a large haul of medals including 44 Gold, 34 Silver and 40 Bronze – a rich haul of 118 medals. Can we expect and good performances after only three months training? We came to know that the SAG is being held definitely only three months ago.
Hemasiri Fernando - File pix
“What has the Sports Development Department done? The Sports Minister is a fine individual. He has a great desire to improve sports. But his assistants are not very helpful. I cannot say anything about the overall team that is proceeding to the SAG. I was not involved in the organising part of it from NOC’s point of view.
“This will be the last time I will be the NOC head for the SAG. After the Rio Olympics I plan to quit as head of the NOC and call for fresh elections. “We have won the most number of medals only in 1991. In the last edition of the SAG held in 2010 Sri Lanka were restricted only to 16 Gold.”
The Sports Minister has assured that each Gold medal winner will be awarded Rs. Five Lakhs. Three Lakhs for a Silver medal and one Lakh for a Bronze medal. Team event Gold medal winners are to be presented one Lakh each. Coaches will be awarded 25% of the medal earnings.
The overall captain and athletics skipper of the team is Manjula Kumara Wijesekera Sri Lanka’s high jumper.
The team will proceed to India on three special flights on February 3, February 5 and February 9. In the history of the SAG the largest number of Gold Medals has been won by Julian Bolling, amounting to 15. These were in 1984, 1987, 1989 and 1991. These medals were in 100,200, 400 and the Relay.
There were problems in selecting the hockey, badminton, tennis and athletics. All problems have been sorted out. Sri Lanka’s leading shuttlers brothers Niluka and Dinuka Karunaratne has been dropped for not attending trials. The largest number of Gold Medals is expected from athletics. In the 2010 SAG held in Bangladesh Sri Lanka won eight Gold Medals in athletics. In SAG athletic events records Sri Lanka holds six records in men’s events and six women’s events.