Sports Minister Harin Fernando is expected to make plans to support Sri Lanka athletes through Road to Olympic’ programme and it’s already applied for high performance athletes (super) pool to get more success said Sports Director General Prof Rear Admiral Shemal Fernando.
After the New Year holidays Sports Minister has launched this new programme to get athletes Paris Olympic qualification and this has already being conveyed to the respective sports bodies said Sports Director General who is in charge of the Sports Development Department.
Sports Director General
Prof. Rear Admiral Shemal Fernando
Another three more months for the forthcoming Olympics but none of the Sri Lanka athletes directly get qualification and this programme has been launched on behalf of the most talented athletes Sports Minister expected to get full support through Cabinet approval and President Ranil Wickrmesinghe is ready to give his fullest support to this programme he said.
Already 58 athletes from 12 sports are included in the Super athletes pool and they are more focused on Olympics while according to the approval the selected athletes expenses of qualification competitions and International events is very high but that money has already been allocated by the Sports Ministry.
In addition through this Road to Olympic’ programme the selected athletes receive Rs.300,000 on a monthly basis while their coaches will receive Rs.100,000 allowance while the athletes who got foreign scholarships receive one million rupees monthly. In addition nutrition allowances of Rs. 50,000 also given to the selected pool athletes.
According to this Road to Olympic programme the selected athletes are eligible to take part in six International events and all their expenses covered by the Sports Ministry.
Sports Director General Prof. Rear Admiral Shemal Fernando said we wanted to see more Olympic qualification athletes this time and Sports Minister ready to give his maximum support Sports Development Department already given all necessary facilities but still some of the Sports Bodies are trying to get more money for unnecessary events .We have to know about their programmes and their coordination with the Sports Ministry is more vital added Sports Director General.
We first got athletes details from the Sports Bodies but due to various appeals we had to add 14 more athletes to original 44 athletes list altogether 58 athletes are focused these days and National Sports Council headed by Dr Maiya Gunasekara also involved in this programme to get success he said
The number of competitors (19 ) from Athletics while highest number of 25 athletes from para sports are included for this pool. In addition competitors from Badminton, Swimming, Boxing ,Squash , Rifle shooting, Swimming and Diving ,Weightlifting, Wrestling also included for this Road to Olympic’ programme.
Dhammika Ratnaweera