Youngsters flock in numbers to enjoy a fun-filled day
Ginigathena Primary School, Mahagama Prima School and Albion Tamil School dominated the Nestle Kids Athletics Championship Grade 3 events held at the Bogambara Stadium in Kandy. Ginigathena Primary School emerged the winners of Boy’s Category, while Gunasekara Vidyalaya, Sri Jayewardenepura followed in at second with Rahula College, Matara finishing at third.
Mahagama Primary School, Homagama won the Girls’ Segment in which Girls’ High School, Kandy came in at second and Galigamuwa Primary School, Kegalle finished at third. The Mixed Segment was won by Albion Tamil School, Hatton as Ananda Dasanayake Primary School, Kotmale and Cleverto Tamil School, Hatton followed in at second and third respectively.
The Nestle Kids Athletics Championship for Grade 3 athletes was a well participated event with 2544 youngsters from 215 teams making their presence at the Bogambara Stadium in Kandy. Thilak Ekanayake, the -Provincial Education Director of Centr al Province graced the occasion as the Chief Guest.
The programme aims at arranging kids’ day-to-day activities like walking, running, spinning and throwing in a fun way, with a scientific perspective, can help meet their physical exercise requirement.
Children are encouraged to engage in physical activity programmes based on the ‘Four F’ concept (Fun, Fitness, Fundamental, and Friendship), conducted in suitable environments, that provide a balanced physical and academic education. In addition to helping children be fit, sports helps recognise students with a talent for sports and help develop their abilities too.
Nestlé, the sponsors this programme and has been of immense help in increasing the initiative’s popularity among schools. Through this programme, more than 175,000 students participated in 247 divisional level games, 74 zonal level games and seven provincial level games in 2017.
All provinces in the country will be represented at this year’s championship, totaling 5,940 children – i.e., 1,920 students from Grade 3, 2,016 students from Grade 4 and 2,004 students from Grade 5.
Following the competition for Grades 3 and 4 at the Kandy Bogambara Stadium, the competition for Grade 5 also took place on later days at the same venue in Kandy.
The All-Island Schools Kids Athletics Championship is part of Nestle’s Kids Athletics Programme.
It is the physical activity component of the Nestlé Healthy Kids Programme, which teaches school children about improved diets, healthy cooking, hydration, food safety and hygiene. Both programmes are part of Nestlé’s global ‘Nestlé for Healthier Kids’ initiative, which aims at helping 50 million children lead healthier lives by 2030, by offering nutritious products and advice for families on nutrition and exercise.
Grade 3 Mixed champions - Albion Tamil School, Nuwara Eliya
Grade 3 Girls' champions - Mahagama Primary School, Homagama
Grade 3 Boy's champions - Ginigathena Primary School