The year 2010 has seen the swimming calendar in Sri Lanka having had to delay two major national level swim events. This has been due to the unavailability of the pool at the Sugathadasa National Sports Stadium Complex.
The state of a swimming pool - Pix by Sanka Vidanagama |
Speaking to Donald Abeysundara, Chairman, Sugathadasa National Sports Stadium Complex Authority, he says, “We are currently doing repairs at the pool which have been done after 20 years and they will be completed in around a week.” As to how long it has taken to complete the repairs, he says, “It took around three months to complete as we had to get material such as glass from abroad.”
The Novices Aquatic Championships and the Age Group Relay Championships are usually held in the last week of February and the second week of March, respectively. These are all standard patterns as this calendar has been practiced for several years and had coaches been told in advance it would have enabled them to adjust accordingly. The Novices Aquatic Championships attracts over a 1000 swimmers annually drawing fresh talent into active competition.
Imports and other necessary items could have been brought in for repairs much earlier therefore the delays possibly implicate improper planning.
The Sri Lanka Schools Novices Championships was shifted to the Ananda College Swimming Pool much to the disappointment of parents because of the unavailability of the automatic time system.
This slowed down the conduct of the meet and also resulted in several errors being made, which were however, subsequently corrected. A past official states that in order to conduct the 2006 SAF Games, it was simply a touch up that was done at the stadium.
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