The officials of the Sri Lanka Schools Athletic Association (SLSAA) who have finalized all arrangements to conduct the 79th Sir John Tarbat Shield Senior Athletics Champions scheduled to get underway from October 7 at the Sugathadasa Stadium have broken new ground by accepting the late entry of a member from the Veddah community.
Thala Warigayage Ratnapala from the Veddah community who ran an impressive race to secure a second place at the recently concluded Nestomalt Mini Marathon at Ampara has the talent said an official of the SLSAA and with that in mind we thought of encouraging him to reach greater heights in the future.
The championship organized by the SLSAA is being sponsored by Nestle Lanka Ltd under the brand of Milo and incidentally Ratnapala ran the Mini Marathon which was also sponsored by the same company who are involved with school sports in a big way.
Scheduled to be held over three days the championship will see the participation of over 2000 athletes from 320 schools around the island and will also be a trial for the forthcoming Junior Asian Athletics Championships due to be held in November in India.
Events will be held in the age groups of Under 16, 18 and 20 for both boys and girls. According to the officials of SLSAA the boys’ category will have 1460 athletes and the girls’ category 950 athletes.
The three day event will be worked off with the opening ceremony scheduled to be held on October 7 at 7.30 a.m. with Major General Palitha Fernando, president of the Sri Lanka Athletic Association and Bandula Egodage, External Affairs Manager Nestle Lanka Ltd present.
The closing ceremony is scheduled for October 9 with Bandula Basnayake, Minister of Sports Western Province and Norman Kannangara, Assistant Vice President Nestle Lanka Ltd will be present. |
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