Over 800 Para athletes to compete at National Championship
View(s):A total of 190 track and field events will be on the cards, as over 800 athletes, representing 45 clubs affiliated to the National Paralympic Committee (NPC) vie for honours at the National Para Championship 2019. The event will be held on September 5 and 6 at the Sugathadasa Stadium in Colombo under the aegis of NPC, the official governing body of disabled sports in Sri Lanka.
The premier athletic championship organised in Sri Lanka for Para athletes will bring together over 800 athletes representing more than 45 sports clubs affiliated to NPC from different provinces of the country. The NPC provides opportunities for three disability groups, namely men and women with visual impairments, physical impairments and intellectual disabilities to showcase their talents.
The event will also give NPC the opportunity to identify athletes who have the potential to participate in international sporting events including the upcoming World Para Athletics Championships to be held in Dubai in November.
“There will be more than 190 track and field events conducted for the three mentioned disability groups under different functional categories giving a diverse outlook to the event. There are 14 athletes from the island, who won medals at the last Asian Para Games, and at this event all of them will be in action during the two days at the National Para Championship,” Colonel Dhananjaya Aludeniya, the General Secretary of NPC, stated.
The National Para Championship commenced in 1995 but due to various reasons the event could not proceed continuously. The upcoming championship will be the ninth installment, after the NPC eagerly game the event prominence during the recent years.
“The National Para Athletics Championship 2019 is organised under the patronage of the Ministry of Sports, NPC and Dialog Axiata PLC, a longstanding partner in sports for the disabled in Sri Lanka.
Dialog is the proud sponsor of the National Paralympics Committee and the Sri Lanka Army Para Games Committee from 2015 to 2019, and has a long history with Paralympic sports in Sri Lanka when the Company first sponsored the Sri Lanka Paralympic contingent in the year 2000, followed by 2004 and 2008, including sponsorship of the National Sports Festival for the Disabled,” Colonel Aludeniya explained.
The sponsors, Dialog, also came forward to support the Army Para Games from 2015, which empowers disabled serviceman to compete
for top honours in 14 disciplines, which included athletics, archery, badminton, cycling,
shooting, table tennis, powerlifting,
wheelchair marathon, wheelchair tennis,
wheelchair basketball, swimming, wheelchair
volleyball, beach volleyball and seven-a-side
softball cricket.