NOC chief urges athletes to grab the “once-and-for-all” opportunity
Pugilist Anusha Kodituwakku was one of the recepients who received honours from the Premier
Sri Lanka will field its biggest contingent ever at the 18th Asian Games in Palembang and Jakarta, Indonesia, from August 18 to September 2 and, National Olympic Committee (NOC) President Suresh Subramanium said this is an opportunity that all Athletes take very seriously.
Altogether there will be 178 athletes and 69 officials including caches, managers, doctors, physios and masseurs.
Outlining his plans exclusively to the Sunday Times, Subramanium said, “I was keen to see that almost every discipline was included for the Asian Games. Having said that, an event of this magnitude is not the place for testing. When you send a team, you send the best available, to win medals. But, our systems were so flawed that it became a huge task. For instance, Tennis was asked to register with the NOC about a year ago. It was while attending an international meeting that I learned that Tennis was missing from the Asian Games. Then I got activated. I knew there would be more cases of this nature.”
He said, at that point, he spoke with NOC Secretary General Maxwell de Silva and learned the Ministry of Sports (MoS) was only looking at the bigger picture and would only assist medal prospects. That meant the Asian Games contingent was going to be small.
“My view was completely different. It is true that winning medals is important but, here there are hundreds of athletes who are constantly training with hopes of representing the country. I thought we must look for an avenue and the task was achieved. Yet, the respective sports federations did not have the necessary financial resources to follow up, nor did the Ministry of Sports had the allocations to do that,” Subramaniam said.
When Sports Minister Faiszar Musthapha brought the financial constraints to his notice, Subramaniam said drew up a plan. He told the Minister, “In that case, leave the finances to us, as they must participate. But, next time we will have the qualifying criteria – world ranking or Asian rankings. Right now, it is very difficult to impose those criteria, because most of them do not have the world ranking. So we, along with the Ministry decided that the respective federations must be given the opportunity. In fact, we are really disappointed with the Rifle Shooting Federation for pulling out. Right now, 29 out of the 32 federations are going to Jakarta. When we went for the Commonwealth Games, though they said we would come back with about two medals, in reality, we ended up with six medals.”
At that point, he, along with Maxwell de Silva, thought of floating a Sports Fund. Again, a partner for a task of this magnitude should be rock solid, and the partner we could have is the government. “I immediately reached out to Prime Minister Ranil Wickremesinghe and convinced him that it is a task that has to be accomplished for the next generation of our athletes. If they miss this opportunity, they would have to wait for another four years. At the same time, when we participate, it is our national flag that flutters through the international arena. The Prime Minister agreed and the Prime Minister’s Sports Fund was born. I am very confident the Fund may swell to even Rs 300 million in the near future.”
A section of the gathering
Subramanium said, “Now we are selecting some disciplines and will obtain the services of some top international trainers too. Thereafter, we have been granted the facility at the Foundation of Goodness at Seenigama, run by Kushil Gunasekera, free of charge.”
The NOC chief said the work at Seenigama High Performance Centre will be launched right after the Asian Games. He added, “We have to take our athletes to the next level. Without proper training facilities and guidance, it is impossible for our athletes to shift gears, to move into the next stage. At the same time, we will be telling the federations to look for good coaches and make use of the opportunity. In short, we would open the doors for them and it is up to them to make use of the opportunity. Because, in future, the criteria will be tough, it would be mandatory for the respective disciplines to achieve the required standards.”
“This time, what we have given is a once-in-a-lifetime opportunity at this Asian Games. Team sports such as Baseball, Kabaddi, Taekwondo, Wushu, Canoeing and Rugby are included for the first time at the Asian Games. Rowing, for instance, will be in action at the Asian Games after nearly 12 years. But, thereafter, it will be purely on qualification. We will give them the necessary backing for training and it will be up to them to reap the harvest,” he concluded.