Four swimmers in quagmire as officials act waterpolo
The weeks-old dilly-dallying swimming saga, is yet to get its go-ahead from the Sports Ministry’s National Sports Selection Committee (NSSC) with only 72 hours left for the FINA-set deadline.
The Sunday Times learns that the NSSC had sent a letter to the Ministry of Sports on Tuesday (23), but since then, there has been no progress with the ministry causing a mystery.
However, though, in complete contradiction, the Sunday Times also found from a top Sports Ministry official that no such letter has been written to the ministry by the NSSC.
As reported earlier, Sri Lanka Aquatic Sports Union’s (SLASU) stance throughout has been that they had provided all explanation and clarity demanded by the NSSC, however, there has been no decision by the latter nor by the ministry.
“For the fourth week in succession, the NSSC, appointed by the ministry, still has not decided on this matter,” said a source from SLASU, handling this matter.
“Normal procedure before all these new NSSC was, the letter would come to us with a copy to the ministry, and then we would take that with the rest of the supporting documents and hand it over to the ministry for the final approval. Minister or ministry’s secretary signs and seals it,” the source added.
This has now placed the four Sri Lankan swimmers, supposed to represent the country in this year’s FINA World Championship, to be held in mid-December, in Abu Dhabi, on pins. Though FINA, the organisers had endorsed it, the local authorities leaving it unattended with lack of time for training and various other issues is only making matters worse.
Suresh Subramaniam, a member of the NSSC, speaking last week played it safe saying there still was time, thus there was no problem brewing. He said the ministry won’t approve it without us (NSSC) approving for any sport.
“In the swimmer’s case, they haven’t swum since 2019 and hence, by going for the world championship they are not going to achieve anything”.
The SLASU official gave a piece of his mind, coming hard on the NSSC that the entire affair was of pillar to post treatment filled with unwanted red tape.
“What our selection committee does is get referred to the NSSC and they have to approve it. After the NSSC approves it, if we need to go to the ministry to get the final approval. Why does our committee need to select,?” he questioned.