The Amateur Athletic Association of Sri Lanka (AAASL) will launch a programme dubbed ‘talent search’ from tomorrow. The goal of this search is to find youngsters and train them over a period as it felt that there not enough of athletes in Sri Lanka’s second string squad.

President of the AAASL Palitha Fernando speaking to The Sunday Times said; “We are going to use a scientific approach to this search. First we will educate the coaches on what we are looking for. Then we will launch this pilot programme in the Kalutara District by the second week of January. Our target is children between the ages of 14 and 16. Sports Minister Gamini Lokuge has agreed to provide the finances.”

He added; “What we are looking are body features such as strength, flexibility and agility. We are not going to give the coaches a specific number. Instead we are going to tell them to look for the features I mentioned and then start training them. We badly need this because currently other than for few individuals, there is very limited number of athletes coming through the ranks. We have also found that many kids do not even know how to skip a rope which is essential for hand and feet coordination.”

“Before the second week of February we will conduct a test and select about 40 children. After that we will bring the children and the coaches to Colombo every fortnight for more advanced training. We will also give incentives to the children so that they will continue their athletic career,” said Fernando.

“By the end of March we will have a competition and based on the results we will select the best children. If as I believe the pilot programme is a success we will conduct similar events all over the island.

However, in the eventuality that the programme does not provide the desired results, we will discontinue it immediately and there is no point in wasting money,” added Fernando in conclusion.