In an initiative move the Minister of Sports, Mahindananda Aluthgamage has appointed 13 officials to develop and spot talents from the North and East provinces. The appointees according to the media spokesman of Ministry of Sports are national and international award recipients and diploma holders who will come directly under the Department of Sports Developments.
“These 13 sports officials will play a major role in the Ministry of Sports’ seven-year national policy plan which will target the Commonwealth Games in 2018. This is the beginning of the programme of popularizing sports in the rural areas,” media spokesman Harsha Abeykoon said.
With the end of the war sports activities has been given a great boost in the Northern and Eastern parts of Sri Lanka. Young athletes who were earlier shunned from participating at competitions which were dominated by children of other parts of the country are at present making good progress after the end of war.
“We were able to see potential talent emerging from these regions during the past two years. Some of them even have reached the national level. What the Ministry of Sports expects from this programme is to see the true potential reach the deserved level,” Abeykoon added.
The programme is expected to expand throughout the less privileged regions of the country. More sports officials are expected to join the initial set of 13 who will solely work on the development of skills and techniques of the athletes and guide them to the national stream. |
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