Sports
 

Wheelchair tennis to get push-up
South Asia Gateway Terminals (pvt) Ltd presented a sponsorship of Rs 1 Million to uplift wheel chair tennis. This was announced at a press conference held at the Trans Asia Hotel in Colombo recently. Speaking to Sunday Times President of the SLTA told that " We are delighted over SAGT's involvement in wheelchair tennis which is appreciated by all for giving an opportunity for the less fortunate segment of our society.

Secretary of the SLTA's Wheelchair Tennis Col. Chrys de Silva told that in the 1980's though wheelchair tennis started it died soon after. The restart was only in 2002 where we were in D division, and now we are promoted to the B division just after 3 years of active playing. Earlier this year our side played with a lot of success in New Zealand and Australia. Due to this achievement in a short period of time they have given us 2 wild cards for the Paraplegic Olympics to be held in Athens after the summer games.

SLTA's CEO Lionel Almedia speaking at the media briefing thanked the sponsors and the Trans Asia hotel for their continued support.

He further stressed that we intend setting up a separate fund for wheelchair tennis and the 1 million rupees from SAGT will go to launch that fund". Up to now the game has been played by servicemen, chiefly soldiers, all victims of the 20-year war. We would like to involve the disabled civilians too, not only in a bid to search out talent but also to bring some cheer into the lives of the less fortunate among us he concluded.

Top    

Copyright © 2001 Wijeya Newspapers Ltd. All rights reserved.