Lekamge’s omission stirs debate over national pool selection criteria
Sri Lanka Athletics (SLA) is confident of winning medals at the Asian Athletic Championships scheduled to be held in May going by the performances at the 98th National Athletic Championship but pundits are questioning the selection criteria following the omission of a leading athlete in the 41-member Elite and National pools.
There was no place for Dilhani Lekamge, javelin throw South Asian Games (SAG) gold medallist, Asian Championship silver medallist and Commonwealth Games finalist, from both pools, despite being in the Elite pool coming into the championship. Lekamge (48.97m) finished second behind Olympian Nadeeka Lakmali who won the women’s title throwing a distance of 53.97m.
“I am surprised that they have not included me at least in the national pool. I missed out on training because of corona being unable to train at Sugathadasa Stadium or Torrington regularly,” said Lekamge, who vowed to fight back at the Army Meet which will serve as a final selection trial for the Asian Championship.
Lekamge’s coach Madhawa Senarath felt her removal from even the national pool was unfair.
“This was not a trial meet. She deserved to be in the national pool by virtue of being runner-up at the Nationals where the best in Sri Lanka compete. Javelin throw is a unique event requiring specialised skills unlike track athletes who can perform in one or more events like 100-200 or 400-800. The champion and runner-up of each event should be in the national pool otherwise no new talents will emerge in the long term from these events,” he said.
Senarath also argued there was no sound basis to the notion that Sri Lanka could win medals in certain events.
SLA president Maj. Gen. (Rtd) Palitha Fernando attributed her omission to ‘poor performance’ at the Nationals conducted with limited participation of athletes from December 26 to 29.
“We had set qualifying standards, corona affected training for all athletes,” he said.
Hashini Balasooriya too was removed from the Elite Pool despite her winning the Triple Jump during the Nationals with a leap of 13.07m which was below her personal best of 13.40m.
“We are gearing up for the Asian Championships where we can definitely win five or six medals,” added Maj. Gen. (Rtd) Fernando buoyed by some outstanding performances during the Athletic Nationals.
There was also more good news for athletes with Sports Minister Namal Rajapaksa pledging to support two talents for high performance training overseas.
“We will select two best athletes from the Nationals who have the potential to win a medal at the Asian Championship or Asian Games,” said the SLA chief.
The Asian Athletics calendar for 2021 includes Asian Marathon, Asian Cross Country, Asian Athletics, Asian Relay and Asian Indoor championships before the Olympic Qualification deadline of June 29, said SLA general secretary Prema Pinnawela.
“The Asian Youth Athletics Championships, scheduled to be held in Kuwait City from March 1 to 4, has been postponed to October,” he said.
Meanwhile, the Asian Race Walking Championships scheduled for March 21 in Nomi, Japan has been cancelled while the 6th Asian Beach Games scheduled to be held in Sanya City, China from April 2 to 10 has been postponed indefinitely.
Elite Pool
National Pool
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