The 36th National Sports Festival, put back from September on account of inclement weather, will now take place on October 30, 31 and November 1 at a multitude of venues in and around Kandy.
Competitions in a few sports such as hockey have already been held.
The Bogambara Stadium will no doubt attract the crowds as the track and field events will be held there. D.A. Inoka and P.G.L. Anuradhi, Sri Lanka’s leading long-distance ladies will battle it out for supremacy while turning out for the Central Province. M. Ajanthan in the long-distance events and school-girl Akshana Maralande in the sprint events could be the other homegrown heroines and heroes, Vidyartha schoolboy D.P. Buultjens could place in the longer hurdles event.
Boxing, in which sport the host province is eyeing gold, will be held in the open at the Edward Silva Stadium in Deiyannewala. Golden boy Manju Wanniarachchi, if he does turn out, is assured of a terrific reception.
Thilini Jayasinghe, Sri Lanka’s shuttle queen, will head the local challenge in badminton. These events will be at the St. Anthony’s College Indoor Stadium. Kingswood will stage the men’s basketball event and St. Anthony’s Convent Katugastota, the women’s.
Soccer players of both sexes will be seen in action at Nittawela. The Peradeniya Campus gymnasium will be the venue for netball and table tennis.
The Kandy YMCA, situated in the very heart of the town, has always been home to weight lifting and body building competitions. It will not be any different this time around.
Men’s and women’s volleyball will be at the Seethadevi Balika Vidylaya Courts. Ranabima Royal College Gannoruwa will host the judo competition and the men’s softball event. The Getambe Mahanama College ground will see the women’s softball cricketers strutting their stuff.
The Karate Do competition will take place at the Postal Institute and Kabadi at the Sunil S. Abeysundare playground in Kadugannawa. There are 14 sports in all.
Some of the most interesting athletic events are scheduled as follows:
October 31 – 200 meters men ( 3. 15 pm), 800 meters (3.35 pm), 4x100 Relay (4 pm).
November 1 -400 meters men (8.50 am), 100 meters men (9 am), 400 meters men (3 pm), 1500 meters men (4 pm), 100 meters women (4.20 pm) and the 4x400 Relay (4.40 pm).Organizing an event of this magnitude calls for a lot of hard-work, commitment and dedication.
The Central Province Sports Ministry headed by well-known and versatile Director H.G. Ariyaratne is confident that everything will work out fine. There will be no cause for the local Usain Bolts and Asafa Powells to skip these events! The local Athletics ‘boss’ S. Kosgolla is looking forward to a good show by his team of athletes.
The Western Province has always been too strong for the other provinces and has won the previous thirty five overall championships. The Central Province has always been the bridesmaid. Latterly, their second spot has come under pressure from the North Western Province. |
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