Six main athletics tours in 2018
View(s):In 2018 there are six main athletics tours. Targeting them three pools have been formed. They are: Elite, National and Junior. This has been done by the Athletics Association of Sri Lanka.
The first will be the Commonwealth Games from April 4 to 15 in Gold Coast, Australia. The others are South Asian Junior Athletics Championships on May 5 and 6 in Colombo. This will be followed by the Asian Junior Athletics Championships from June 7 to 10 in Gifu, Japan. The others are World Junior Athletics Championships from July 10 to 15 at Tampere, Finland. The Asian Games from August 18 to September 2 in Jakarta, Indonesia and the Third Youth Olympic Games from October 6 to 18 in Buenos Aires.
In addition to the above six events, there is the Thai Open, Malaysian Open, Singapore Open and the Brunei Open Invitation Athletics events.
There are 25 in the Junior Pool at present, 28 in the Elite Pool and about 70 in the National Pool. Training is being conducted regularly in these pools.
The Sri Lanka Athletics Association is making arrangements to strengthen these pools in January 2018.
Still Sri Lanka is searching for a National Coach. There has not been a National Coach since 2016 after the South Asian Games in India.
The late Derwin Perera was the coach for the South Asian Games (SAG).
The absence of a National Coach is the main setback now. When the Sri Lanka Athletics Association questioned about this keeps on avoiding the issue.