Sports
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| Athletics
on the run! Ironically, instead of taking serious note of the whole episode, some influential persons within the athletic circles are trying to pooh-pooh the whole issue and whitewash the whole scandal. At present the only issue that seems to be bugging athletic officialdom are the two syringes found in the extra room that Rohan Pradeep Kumara hired after the event and if he was under the influence of a banned substance and not the charge of running away from a country without settling a room bill which he had booked after the officials had already booked him into a room with his co-runner Prasanna Amerasekera. Who was with him and what he did within those hours he spent in that room is anybody’s guess. So, obviously the syringes found in this room were in his own calling – or in Sinhala they say “Illan Kanawa”. Adding insult to injury the latest news is that after arriving in Sri Lanka Pradeep Kumara has walked into the AAA office and settled the outstanding US$ 25/- to the local officials at this end. This clearly depicts the fact that he has broken the trust set upon him by the local athletic authorities when they chose him to represent the country in an event held in another country. Besides this the city of Bangkok can be very inviting to a person with no inhibitions. This is not the first time that this individual has breached the trust placed in him. Even prior to this he was implicated in a credit card incident which is before courts at present. Sunday Musings inquired from AAA secretary Prema Pinnawela about the incident and what sort of action they are contemplating. He said “Rohan Pradeep has already been dope tested and we are waiting for the results. On the other incident we are hoping to call an inquiry and action will be taken accordingly. These types of cases are taken on a case by case basis”. When asked what type of action is contemplated on the things already been proved, the AAA secretary said “In athletics we have no code of conduct. So we cannot say what type of action will be taken. It will be all up to the disciplinary committee first and then the main AAA committee to take a final decision. Even prior to this the AAA has taken action against certain athletes and even banned them for a given period. Once we even did take disciplinary action against Susanthika Jayasinghe. At the same time we are also concerned as Rohan Pradeep has won his events leading up to the Asian Grand Prix and if he is given the chance to take part in the Nationals there is a good chance that he will qualify for the forthcoming World Championships. However we are seriously concerned about the issue.” A good statement but the issue is whether the AAA is genuinely interested in taking action against him. The crux of the matter is that Sri Lanka is short of good material and we are compelled to rest content with what we have even if they are completely lacking in discipline. Whatever the officials say, even if they have taken action against athletes they may have been insufficient to prevent them from flouting the disciplinary norms once again. How many times have athletes spoken out of turn and got away with it? How many times have athletes repeatedly gone on tour and pulled out of their events at the eleventh hour? Instead of dissuading them from carrying on like that, officialdom has kept mum allowing the track-stars to take the upper hand. Generally when a sportsman/woman leaves the shores to represent the country they are considered as sports ambassadors. If such is the dubious quality our sports diplomats possess, we perhaps will have to pray for divine intervention of sorts to put things right. You
have your say… Should the AAA have a code of conduct for athletes? |
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