Beijing Olympics will be the big one

The Athletic Association of Sri Lanka has published its calendar of events for this year. Obviously taking top billing is the Olympic Games scheduled to be held in Beijing, China. The Olympics takes place in August. But there also a whole host of international and local events to look forward to.

Top priority for Sri Lankan athletes will be the selection trial for the SAF Championship which is scheduled to be held later this month. The twelfth IAAF World Indoor Championships is scheduled to commence on March 7 in Spain. This will be followed by the SAF Athletic Championships in India also from March 7. Other international events include in March include the Asian 20 kilometre Walking Championships in Japan and the 36th IAAF World Cross Country Championships in Scotland. The Sri Lankan precursor will be held on March 18.

The Thailand Track and Field Open gets underway towards the end of April and this will be followed by the Junior Nationals in the early part of May. A relay carnival, the 23rd IAAF Race Walking Championships and the South East Asia Junior Athletics Championships are just a few of the highlights in the month of May.

Big events for the rest of the year include the Asian Junior Championships in Indonesia, Asian Grand Prix in Thailand and Vietnam, 88th National Championships, the twelfth IAAF World Junior Championships in Poland, SAF Junior Athletic Championships in India, the sixth IAAF World Athletics Final in Germany and the third Commonwealth Youth Games in India to name just a few. (HJ)