Kids’ Athletic Championship finals to be held in Kandy

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The grand finale of the All Island Schools ’Kids Athletic Championship’, organized by the Ministry of Education in partnership with Nestle Lanka Plc will be held from the 9th to 11th of March 2019 at the Bogambara Stadium in Kandy.

The All Island Schools Kids Athletics Championship is part of the Nestle Kids athletic program which is conducted in Grade 3, 4 and 5 in schools around the country and is the physical activity component of the healthy kids’ program which is part of the educational curriculum for all schools which teaches students about improved diets, healthy cooking, hydration, food safety and hygiene.

Having commenced as an All Island Competition in 2015, the Kids’ Athletics Championship is designed to include all the basic functions of a growing kid in the likes of walking, running, spinning, and throwing with a scientific perspective to meet their physical exercise requirements in a fun filled atmosphere. Developing unity, team spirit, friendship and other ethos learned through sports is another main objective of the competition.

This years’ competition is scheduled to be worked out at the Bogambara stadium in Kandy with the Grade 03 competitions held on the 9th, Grade 04 on the 10th and Grade 05 competitions held on the 11th of March. 2592 students who have been selected from 247 divisional games, 74 zonal games and 7 provincial level games will be vying for the national level triumph at the finals.

The Kids’ athletics initiative has resulted in uplifting the quality of athletics in the junior age groups, the seven records broken in the under 12 category and the eight records broken in the under 14 category during the 2018 All Island Schools’ Athletics Championship, can be seen as a premonition of that. In 2018, post the school level games, 267 divisional level games, 83 zonal level games and 08 provincial games have been conducted. The number of students who progressed from divisional to provincial level games has come to over 200,000.    

Speaking at the media briefing, Mr. Milroy Jayamanna – Project officer-Ministry of Education, who was the brains behind introducing the healthy kids concept to the Sri Lankan Schools’ curriculum, stated that the innovative Kids’ Athletic program provides an invaluable opportunity for the  budding young talent to sharpen their basic skills in general athletic abilities which could then be further sharpened according to the various sporting disciplines they would opt to pursue later on.

Mr. Sunil Jayaweera – Special Advisor to the Minister of Education who initiated the All Island Championship for ‘Kids’ Athletic’ initiative, profusely thanked Nestle for coming forward and continuing to power the Kids’ athletic program through the years. He also added that the anticipation and the interest of the schools have rapidly increased year on year which is a great positive but also added that there has been a tendency where the schools have resorted to employing dedicated coaches in order to win the All Island title which is contrary to the objective of the ‘Kids’ Athletic’ initiative as this could harm the development of the young athletes due to over training. He sincerely urged the authorities of all the schools to keep it simple and to involve only the primary teaches of the schools in order to make sure that the young kids are carefully managed.

ThePapare.com will be present at the venue on 9th, 10th & the 11th of March to capture the action of the ‘Kids’ Athletic All Island Championship’ with our photographers ready to freeze the memories that will be made on field. Visit ThePapare.com photography page at www.ThePapare.com/photos to view the photographs.