Star-studded National School Games from October 2
The event will be held at four venues around Colombo
The 33rd All-Island Schools Games will be held from October 2 to 15 in Colombo, Panadura, Negombo and Sri Jayawardenapura. The Ministry of Education has made arrangements to conduct the games at the above mentioned venues.
The opening ceremony will be held on October 2 at 2 pm at the Royal College Rugby Complex. The chief guest will be the person who inaugurated the National School Games, Prime Minister Ranil Wickremasinghe.
Twenty eight sports have been entered to the All Island School Games. 39,400 athletes will figure in the national level events.
Team events will commence on October 3 and will continue until October 15. On October 2 only the opening ceremony will be held where eight team events featuring 12,000 athletes will take part. The team events are: Badminton, Chess, Netball, Swimming, Aerobic Gymnastics, Karate, Wrestling and Football.
A colourful opening ceremony is planned. The main event will be track and field which will be held from October 11 to 15 at the Mahinda Rajapaksa Sports Complex, where 5,600 athletes will take part from 1250 schools. The age groups are: Under-12, Under-14, Under-16, Under-18 and Under- 20 (Boys and Girls).
The closing ceremony will be graced by President Maithripala Sirisena on October 15 at 3 pm at the Mahinda Rajapaksa Sports Complex.
The Schools Sports Concept was changed in 1984 and recommenced as the National School Games and in the following year it was held as the All Island School Games. This occurred with the change of governments and continued as the All Island School Games.
The National School Games commenced in 1984, October 18 at the Sugathadasa Stadium. The chief guest at that function was Ranil Wickremasinghe, who was the Education Minister at that time. The chief organiser of the meet was former Director of Sports Education Sunil Jayaweera. After 33 years both of them have got together for the All Island School Games.
Ranil Wickremasinghe is involved as the Prime Minister and Sunil Jayaweera is involved in it as the Sports Consultant. - SP