Preparation is vital towards success in any sport and for this to happen there needs to be a proper criterion to follow. And in the case of swimming the lack of such a system is one of the main reasons as to why we have not seen as much success as we should in the international arena.
The South Asian Games (SAG) for Sri Lanka can be considered one of the best ways to gauge the standards of our swimmers and even though Sri Lanka bagged three Gold Medals at the SA in Bangladesh this year, there could have been a chance for our swimmers to do better if they had been given enough time to prepare, while having a well experienced Head Coach to guide them.
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| Milinda Wickramasinghe in action at a meet |
In spite of it all, at the recently concluded SAG in Bangladesh, Sri Lanka bagged three Gold Medals in the discipline of swimming. Two out of the three gold medals were won by Mineka Karunaratne while the other was won by Heshan Unambuwa.
“There are talented swimmers in our country,” says Nishantha Kumarapperuma who coaches the swim team of Asian International School. He was also the Head Coach for Sri Lanka’s swim team when at the SA Games in Bangladesh this year. “Some swimmers are very poor and we need to look into assisting them in every way we can,” Kumarapperuma says.
Talking about the SAG he says that the swimmers did very well, having been coached by their individual coaches adding, “The present committee did a good job.” He adds that, “To improve the standard of swimming in the country, we must first categorize our best swimmers and bring them to one place to coach them.”
“In India swimmers are given their international meet calendar and selection criteria two years prior,” says Julian Bolling, Director, Rainbow Swimming Academy adding that this gives them a head start in preparing for meets and the results speak for themselves.
The Sri Lanka Aquatic Sports Union (SLASU), seems to be handling things quite haphazardly because upon returning from the FINA World Champions in Rome, which were held last year, Uyana Hewage Premlath, who coaches the Trinity College swim team including Heshan Unamboowa was supposed to submit a report to the SLASU. However before he was able to do so, he was suspended from tours due not submitting the report within 10 days of returning to Sri Lanka.
“As far as I know, there is no such rule,” says Premlath with regard to submitting such a report within a 10 day period. And his concern is that such a decision will directly affect his swimmers.
“I know my swimmers well and Heshan missed a gold in the 50 metres back stroke at the South Asian Games,” he says, adding, “I know the weaknesses and strengths of my swimmers and I know how to handle them, so by being there, I feel I would have been able to support him more.” Premlath feels very strongly that when Sri Lanka is represented at international meets having an experienced coach makes a world of a difference and this is something the swimming governing body must look into, very seriously.
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| Nishantha Kumarapperuma and
Julian Bolling. |
The general coaching fraternity seems to share very similar sentiments to Premlath. “The South Asian Games are our Olympics,” says Mr. Bolling adding, “A country’s performance is judged by how you perform at the Games.” Unlike when competing on a national level when competing with swimmers in the region we can have a better understanding of where we stand, therefore it is vital to choose swimmers and coaches according to their results. “Even if you have a PhD it is the results that matter,” Bolling adds.
The SA Games saw a contingent of 14 swimmers representing Sri Lanka out of which nine of them were coached by Premlath and Bolling. And from these nine two swimmers went on to win gold medals.
Ruwan Manawadu is currently the Head Coach of St. Josephs’ College, Colombo swim team and he was the Head Coach for the Beijing Olympics in 2008 and Mr. Manawadu along with Mr. Bolling spoke of the Commonwealth Games which are to be held in October this year in New Delhi, India and the trials are to be held in June. The coaches have not officially been notified of this by a circular and the information they currently have is only by word of mouth. “If you are a swimmer you have to know what is ahead of you and you must be able to pre plan,” Bolling and Manawadu say. To which they added that it is not simply the SLASU but the entire sporting fraternity that has to work together to plan out their calendar in order to improve overall results.
Capt. Jayantha Gamage is the Chairman of Navy Swimming and the controller in charge of Open Water Swimming as well. He put a team together, which included Mr. Bolling to take swimming to every possible district in the island. This was to be done with the least cost and with no taxation on the SLASU.
However, SLASU had stated in writing that the work can go ahead without Mr. Bolling being involved in the team because he is involved in coaching. “I do not understand the logic in this as there are coaches involved in administration,” Bolling says. The result of this decision was the programme being brought to a halt. The bigger picture - Children in the remote corners of the country losing a chance to better their skills in swimming and represent their country.
The elections for SLASU will be held tomorrow May 17, 2010, and the concern is that those currently running the SLASU are not quite doing their part and therefore the worry of those involved in the sport is that they will not do their part in the future as well. |
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