Yogananda Wijesundera National Athletic coach sans ‘Vacancy Ad’
Sugath Tillekeratne
The Executive Committee (ExCo) of the Athletics Association of Sri Lanka (AASL) has decided to appoint Yogananda Wijesundera as the new National Athletics coach, which post had been vacant for nearly one year. Former National coach Derwin Perera stepped down after the 2016 South Asian Games (SAG) in India. One of his reasons for stepping down was that his salary was not paid for several months. Now, he is physically not well.
Yogananda Wijesundera has been responsible for training top level Athletes such as Jayamini Illeperuma, Thilaka Jinadasa and Dilima Pietersen. Added to that, Yogananda’s pupils have won several medals for training. His last post was that of Director Institute of Sports Science.
“The normal procedure is to advertise a vacant post and call for applications. This time, however, the AASL nominated Yogananda as the National Coach,” said AASL President, Sugath Tillekeratne, to the Sunday Times.
There are plans to appoint a National Athletics Panel as well, consisting of 10 to 12 coaches. The names of the National Coach and Coaching Panel has been forwarded to the Sports Ministry for approval. Taking into consideration 2017 and 2018, a 121-National pool of three segments has been established. They are Olympic Pool (1 Athlete- Marathon Runner Anuradha Indrajit Cooray), Super Grade Pool: 17 top level Athletes. Other than that, there is the National Pool of 107 Athletes.
Sri Lanka’s first international meet is the 22nd Asian Senior Athletic Championships from July 1-4, in Ranchi, India in 2017. Sri Lanka hopes to win several medals at that this 4-day event, where 40-50 Athletes are being trained to take part. In 2018 there are two targets. The first is the Gold Coast Commonwealth Games from April 4-15, after which the 18th Asian Games from August 18 to September 2, in Jakarta, Indonesia.
The 2018 SAG will be held in Kathmandu, where Sri Lanka hopes to win several Gold medals. At the last SAG, Sri Lanka won 9 Gold, 11 Silver and 17 Bronze. According to Mr Tillekeratne, the AASL has budgeted Rs 90 million, and the annual plan has been forwarded to the Sports Ministry for approval. They hope to raise these funds through the private sector and the Sports Ministry.
The AASL elections will take place before May 2017, as advised by the Sports Ministry. Incumbent President Sugath Tillekeratne has completed two years, and whether he will bid for re-election is yet to be decided.
“If I am assured of a good group to work with, then I may consider to work for another year or so. I underwent a tough period during the last two years. I am very happy with the journey I had with Athletics in the past two years. There were several who tried to obstruct my work. Some ExCo members did not even attend meetings. It is difficult to forge ahead with such a set of officials.
“It is better to step down and allow someone else to do the work, rather than work with a set of people who are not willing to give a helping hand,” concluded Mr Tillekeratne.