Olympic trials debacle: Athletic Association does a Pole vault
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Are we just primitive or careless. The the 94th National Athletic Championship was held at the Mahinda Rajapaksa Sports Complex last week amidst the customary shortcomings. The irony is that in Sri Lanka there are only two athletic stadiums which could be used for International meets. One is the Sugathadasa Stadium which is out of commission for the past one year or more. The next is the newly commissioned Diyagama Stadium. Now we find even at Diyagama the facilities are wanting. The meet was held sans the aid of a Wind Gauge and the electronic timing device. Just imagine the athletes were looking to qualify for the Rio Olympics just around the corner. July 12th is the IAAF cut off date. The organisers initially predicted that they have found at least four athletes who would qualify, but there were none. Why, anyway the manual timing device is not recognised by the authorities.
Susantha Fernando
(National level Athletic Coach)
“I see that the recently concluded Athletic Nationals are very similar to those held in the 1950′s and 1960′s. The top technical officials of the Athletic Association are duty-bound to visit the venue of the Athletic Nationals two weeks prior to the ev ent, for a comprehensive check of the ground facilities and the track. The Mahinda Rajapaksa stadium at Diyagama, where the Athletic Nationals was held, the track was damaged. Hence Athletes in the track events could not perform at their best, and many records were not broken or equalled. The bottom line is that, due to this situation, many Athletes could not fulfill their Olympic dreams. These Athletes also missed the opportunity of participating in overseas meets to improve their timings. Our neighbour India prepared for the Rio Olympics many months in advance, unlike the ridiculous situation in Sri Lankan Athletics. India sent their relay teams for overseas meets for Olympic qualification. If we had sent Manjula Kumara (High jump) and Nimali Liyanarachchi (800 metres) for overseas meets, they would have definitely improved their timing and gone to Rio. For this unfortunate incident, top officials of the Athletic Associations should be held totally responsible.”
Sunil Gunawardena
(International Level Athletic Coach)
“This is one of the rarest occasions in a final Olympic qualification opportunity where the electronic timing machine did not function. We have 3 athletes participating in Rio and, of this 3, 2 qualified by running on roads overseas. Except for Nagalingam Ethiriweerasingham, at the SAG, Asian Games, Commonwealth Games and the Olympics, the highest number of medals were won by our short, middle and long distance runners. But today, our Athletes participating in sprint events, have no proper training venue. The tracks at the Sugathadasa and Mahinda Rajapaksa Stadium, Diyagama, are unusable. Today, Athletes such as Chandrika Subashini and 3 other sprinters who ran on the track at Sugathadasa Stadium, are taking treatment for injuries. It is a basic violation of the fundamental rights of these Athletes to compete at National Athletics without an electronic timing machine. By taking away our Athletes’ chances, nobody can take cover from their mistakes. The top officials are totally responsible for this debacle.”
Harsha De Abeykoon (Secretary- National Sports Media Foundation)
” After the debacle at the Guangzou Asian Games in 2010, the Sports Ministry appointed the K.A.S. Gunasekara committee to investigate the shortcomings. This committee, in its report states that long term planning is needed for the South Asian Games( SAG), Asian Games, Commonwealth Games and the Olympic Games. As far as I know, after this report, the then Ministry of Sports instructed all the Sports bodies, they will have the required money and infrastructure for a long term plan for the above mentioned 4 Games. Though the Government and the Ministry of Sports have given all the support, it is an act of irresponsibility by the Athletic Association. This situation has violated the fundamental rights of our Athletes. At a time when, a National Sports Policy has been worked out, when the Ministry of Sports has given financial support and clear guidelines are given to Sports bodies, it is a very disappointing and grave injustice caused to the Athletes at the Olympic qualifications.”
Renuka Rodrigo
(Managing Director & Principal- Rotary International School)
” A schoolchild, after competing in inter-house sport meets, later focus its mind to compete in inter-school and National level meets. The final goal is to participate in the Olympics and win a medal. During this journey, parents, teachers and coaches give their utmost support, with further support from National Sports bodies and the government to achieve the final goal of taking part in the Olympics. At the end of this difficult journey made by the child, through all those years, we see that, in the recent events that have unfolded, the National Athletic Association has failed in its duties and washed away the Athletes’ Olympic dreams.”
Premalal Weerasinghe
(Former National Triple Jump Champion)
“The total responsibility should be taken by the Technical committee of the Athletic Association. They have neglected their basic duties. An Athlete getting selected for the Olympics or not is a secondary matter. The Athletic Association must provide all the facilities/infrastructure to all the Athletes participating at the Olympic final qualification event. But, in this case, they failed to do so. In this incident the Athletic Association must accept total accountability and resign from their posts.”
Sunil Jayaweera
(Sports Consultant- Ministry of Education, former President- Athletic Association)
” This is a very unfortunate incident. The Athletic Nationals are held every year and it is the most important competition for the Athletes. When the Athletic Nationals are held in an Olympic year, it is very important for the selection of Athletes. I think, this year the Athletic Nationals were not properly organised in advance by the Athletic officials. If the event was held in an Olympic year, without electronic timing and wind gauge system, the question is whether it was an Athletic Nationals of the country, where all the top Athletes participate to qualify or, a village school sports meet. Generally, in an Olympic year, the Athletic Nationals for qualification should be held at least 4 months before the Olympic qualifying date. Also, when the Athletic Nationals are held 4 months before, Athletes who fail at these trials have a great opportunity to improve their timing and distance by participating in overseas Athletic meets.They have ample time to do this. But, in this case, having the event days away from the Olympic qualifying date, and with no electronic timing and wind gauge, is a laughing matter and causes injustice to the Athletes. This shows negligence by the top officials of the Athletic Association and their attitude towards the worlds biggest sporting spectacle.
Sriyani Kulawansa
(Olympian at Sydney 2000)
“As far as I know, for Olympic Athletic qualification, either the electronic timing or hand timing should be used. If the Athletic selection was done with hand timing it is not a big issue. If the hand timing is not valid at all, then a grave injustice has been caused to the Athletes. This is a violation of the fundamental rights of our Athletes. In the final Olympics qualification event, our Athletic Association should have been more pro-active. If the top officials say they only came to know the electronic timing was not functioning, at the last moment, it is not an excuse for them wash their hands off and run away from responsibility. The top technical officers in the Athletic Association should have check on these shortcomings at Diyagama beforehand or, are they only making ‘trips’ to Asian and Olympic games. In Sri Lanka’s Olympic history since 1948, Athletes have dominated our team contingent to the Olympics. The Athletes who represented Sri Lanka at the Olympics qualified from trials and were never wild card entries. The most number of Athletes who qualified for an Olympic was for Sydney 2000. The Athletes qualified at the Athletic Nationals here. Due to the malfunctioning of the electronic timing, the last chance for our Athletes to compete at Rio and their dreams were washed away.”
Sugath Thilakaratne (President- Athletic Association of Sri Lanka)
“I see the malfunctioning of the electronic timing system at the Athletic Nationals was unexpected. Before this incident, there were 2 Athletic meets at Diyagama. The Junior Nationals and the Lanka Lions annual Athletic championship. On both occasions, the electronic timing functioned very well. Then, for the Athletic Nationals, we came to know of the failure at the last moment. Especially, during the Olympic year, the reason to hold the final qualification opportunity at the last moment is because the Athletes are at their peak. Not only the present Athletic Association has done something like this, even the previous Athletic Associations too have done the same thing in an Olympic year. I accept that, due to this incident, injustice was caused to many Athletes. The impact of this incident may have affected our Athletes in their pursuit to break a meet and Sri Lanka record. At the recent Athletic Nationals, 4 meet and 4 Sri Lanka records were established. In the track events, we did not see any difference by using hand timing. This time, except for Manjula Kumara (High Jumper), the rest of the Athletes were not up to the mark. Hence, nobody can say injustice was caused to all the Athletes, as they did not meet Olympic qualifying timing. Manjula was given a special chance, as he cleared 2.4 metres in the High Jump, but the qualifying standard was 29 metres. The electronic timing system installed at Diyagama was given by the International Association of Athletics Federations( IAAF), and we have given the task to the University of Colombo to check why this did not function.”