Athletic competitions of the National Sports Festival which is set to mark the end of the 44th National Sports festival, will be held from the 11th to 14th of October at the Polonnaruwa District grounds in Polonnaruwa.
President of the Socialist Democratic Republic of Sri Lanka Hon. Maithripala Sirisena will be the Guest of Honour at the grand opening ceremony which will be held on the 11th October commencing at 2.30pm. The opening ceremony will include a parade where athletes representing all 9 provinces and the officials who will grace the event will participate.
The National Sports Festival consisting of 33 sports disciplines, which commenced in May this year will conclude with the Athletic competitions, marking the grand finale of the 6-month long festival. The athletic championship of the National Sports Festival is a keenly contested annual affair, where national level athletes represent their respective provinces in the competitions. This year 1543 athletes are set to participate at the games with 443 officials will bear the responsibility of judging the events.
Member of the Bronze medal winning 4X400 relay team at the Asian Championship, K Kasun Kalhara Senevirathne and G L Priyangika who was a member of the Sri Lankan netball team that won the Asian Netball Championship in 2001, have been bestowed the honour of carrying the torch at the opening ceremony of the competition.
43rd National Sports Festival was held in Matara Kotawila stadium last year where two new national records were established, with Jaffna’s vaulting queen Anitha Jegathiswaran creating a new national record with Shanika Manoji claiming a national record in the Hammer throw. Triple jumper Vidusha Lakshani established a new meet record in the triple jump.
43rd National Sports Festival – Day 03; Janaka & Vidusha Best Athletes
Triple jumper Vidusha Lakshani and Long Jumper Prasad Wimalasiri werr adjudged the best athletes of the 43rd National Sports Festival.
In the last year’s competition, Western Province was placed first in the Men’s Medal tally winning a total of 32 medals which included 6 Gold, 10 Silver and 06 Bronze medals. Central Province was placed second while the Southern Province was placed third. In the Women’s category, it were the hosts Sothern Province who were placed first with a medal tally of 14 medals that included 07 Gold, 04 Silver and 03 Bronze medals. Western was placed second while Sabaragamnuwa Province was placed third.
This year the competitions will be spread across three days commencing on 12th October with finals of events lined up on all three days. This year the performance of the athletes are expected to be better than the previous years with the newly relayed Sugathadasa Stadium having uplifted the performance of the athletes.
Sri Lanka’s #1 Sports Hub ThePapare.com is dedicated to bringing you the action from Polonnaruwa as it happens. Visit www.thepapare.com/athletics to follow the happenings of the 44th National Sports Festival from Polonnaruwa.
