All ready and set to go down South
Last year the event was held in the North, while this time around it moves to the South
All arrangements have been made by the Sports Ministry and the Sports Development Dept to stage the 43rd National Sports Festival (NSF) at the Matara, Kotawila Sports Complex, from Sept.22-24.
The event was earlier scheduled to be held in Ratnapura, but due to poor ground conditions, it was shifted to Matara.
The NSF will feature 29 Sports, of which 22 had been completed at the time of writing. The remainder will be worked off this week in Panadura, Colombo and Matara.
The Track & Field events including 5 main Sports- Volleyball, Boxing, Football and Bodybuilding- will be held in Matara.
Prime Minister Ranil Wickremesinghe will be the Chief Guest at the opening ceremony on Sept.22, while President Maithripala Sirisena will be the Chief Guest at the closing ceremony on Sept.24.
This is the 5th occasion the Southern Province is staging the NSF, and the 3rd time the NSF is being held in Matara.
The 1st NSF in the Southern Province was held in 1975 in Galle. The 2nd and 3rd NSFs were held in 1979 and 2002 in Matara. The last time an NSF was held in the Southern Province was in Beliatta in 2006.
Over 5,000 Athletes and officials will converge ono Matara for the NSF.
Long Jumper P.K. Sujith Rohitha and Middle Distance Runner Dhammika Manike will light the Festival Torch at the 43rd NSF. Both of them are South Asian Games (SAG) Gold Medallists.
Sujith Rohitha is from the Matara District, while Dhammika Menike is from the Galle District.
Sujith Rohitha is a past pupil of Weligama Sri Siddhartha MMV. He won Gold Medal in the Long Jump at the 1999 Kathmandu SAG. He has won several medals at Asian level.
Dhammika Menike won Gold Medal at the 1991 Colombo SAF Games. She was the 800 metres record holder for 24 years, till Nimali Liyanarachchi bettered it at the last NSF held at the Durayappah grounds.
Earlier, Chandimal Niroshan and Tamara Saman Deepika were to light the Featival Flame, but it was changed at the last moment with Dhammika Menike and Sujith Rohitha instead.