Laser Run City 1st Leg successfully concluded
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The Laser Run City Tour 2018 – Sri Lanka 1st Leg was concluded successfully in Bandaragama with almost 200 athletes taking part in Elite, Under-19, Under-15, Under-13 and Under-11 age categories.
This time too, continuing efforts to introduce the sport to rural parts of Sri Lanka, the event was held outside Colombo, in Bandaragama. The location was a well-equipped ground belonging to the Ministry of Sports located 35km away from Colombo. This location was chosen as the Modern Pentathlon Federation of Sri Lanka (MPFSL) had conducted training camps for several schools situated around this location in the preceding two months to the event.
“The idea was to give the school kids and youth in the region to gain experience by using their training in a competition environment. A large number of school kids from the nearby schools and villages took part in the event. The interest among parents and general public for the event was evident with the participation in large numbers to witness it,” the MPFSL, issuing a communiqué, stated.
The Elite categories for Women and Men saw several top athletes with high world rankings taking part. These athletes represented the Sri Lankan forces and other modern pentathlon sports clubs. There were participants that represented Sri Lankan Universities as well and it was heartening to see that there were commendable performances from them too. Their participation made the event more colourful and generated much interest among the viewing public.
“We were able to see the introduction of new coaches with the help of UIPM and Ministry of Sports had paid dividends almost immediately with the performance levels of athletes increasing in this event compared to the previous editions of the event.”
The event also included a segment by some industry experts attached to high profile clothing brands and universities, providing valuable knowledge about sportswear to the athletes who participated through a programme — ‘Know How Expert’. This was carried out throughout the day and saw all athletes trying to gain knowledge about proper sportswear that they should be wearing.
The Ministry of Sports assisted MPFSL to organise the event by getting some of the ground logistics and human resource requirements. The event was able to attract new sponsors and MPFSL stated it is very thankful to Opal Clothing for coming forward to help make the event more colourful.