Athletics: Nayananda and Jayamini to light Olympic Torch at Sports Festival

The athletic championships of the 41st National Sports Festival will take place on December 18, 19 and 20 at the Diyagama Mahinda Rajapaksa Sports Complex.

Twenty four sports are included in this Sports Festival conducted by the Sports Ministry and to date 23 sports have been completed. 

The athletic championships will be the final of this sports gala.

Over 900 athletes will be involved in the athletic championships. 

The opening ceremony will be graced by the Prime Minister Ranil Wickremasinghe and President Maithripala Sirisena will be the chief guest at the closing ceremony. 

At the time of going to press, neither the Prime Minister nor the President had confirmed of their participation.

The Sports Festival is usually held in August but due to a salary problem which had been dragging on for a long time amongst sports officers, the festival was postponed.  

Sports Minister Dayasiri Jayasekera has promised that he will look into the matter in the near future.

The Olympic torch for the athletic championships will be lit by Nishantha Nayananda (Race Walking) and Jayamini Illeperuma (Middle Distance runner). 

Nishantha Nayananda has been the Race Walking champion on 18 occasions from 1992 to 2010. 

From 1998 onwards he has been the record holder in this event. 

Nishantha has taken part in two Asian Games – 1998 (Bangkok) and 2002 (Bhusan). He is the Physical Instructor at D.S. Senanayake College.

Jayamini Illeperuma represented Sri Lanka at the Barcelona Olympics and has been a regular member of the Sri Lanka team from 1987 to 1993. 

Her events at the South Asian Games were: 100m, 200m, 400m, 800m, 4X100 and 4X400 Relays. 

In 1994 she represented the Asian team at the World Cup Athletic Championships.  

Currently she is attached to the Hatton National Bank. Jayamini also lit the Olympic torch at the 38th National Sports Festival. 

Thirty eight best athletes will receive (men and women) cash awards of Rs. 10,000 each. 

The winner of each Gold Medal will be in line for Rs. 7,500, Rs. 5,000 to Silver Medal winners and Rs. 3,000 each for Bronze Medal winners.

From the 23 team events Western Province has won 66 Gold medals, 53 Silver medals and 40 Bronze medals and are currently are the leaders at the Sports Festival.