Time to prepare ahead

Sri Lanka athletes are bound to compete in three major international Games next year - Commonwealth Games in Melbourne in March, South Asian Games in Colombo in April and Asian Games in Doha towards the end 2006.

We are well behind the schedule of launching local preparations of the national pool. All these months, we have been talking about forming a good national pool and providing them residential training with other facilities as food, accommodation and nutrition. But officials have just been sitting on the proposals, without putting them into action.

This is the last chance to resurrect Sri Lanka athletics with a few medals at the forthcoming Games as the majority of our celebrated athletes, who have brought glory for Sri Lanka during the past decade or more, are due to retire before the beginning of 2007.

Susanthika Jayasinghe, Damayanthi Darsha, Sugath Tillakaratne and Rohan Pradeep Kumara are all approaching their 30s and have only couple of years left in their distinguished careers. Hence, we must draw out a plan to get the best out of them, what they are capable to offering during the final lap of their careers.

Their experience should be coupled with young talent of champions in the calibre of high jumper Manjula Kumara Wikesekera in forming a super pool of athletes to gear up for the future.

We must identify the best medal prospects at international level and include them in a Sri Lanka 'super pool', which should be given all possible facilities in their preparations. This is a successful recipe we tested out in the late 90s and that led to win medals at Olympic, World championships, Commonwealth and Asian Games level. At the same time, we could maintain regular national pool.

When we evaluate the performance of our top most athletes, the events in which we have good chances of winning medals are women's 200m, men's 400m, men's high jump, men's 4 x 400m relay, women's javelin throw and men's marathon.

Accordingly, Darsha, Jayasinghe, Prasanna Amarasekera, Pradeep Kumara, Tillakaratne, Rohitha Pushpakumara, Manura Lanka, Ranga Wimalawansa, Wijesekera, Anne Maheshi Silva and Anuradha Indrajith Cooray could be drawn into the proposed national super pool.

If necessary, one or two emerging athletes too could be added to this in making a pool of around 12 members. They should be given all possible facilities to do some 'serious training'. Instead of the present meal allowance, they should be provided with a balanced meal during their residential training, additional nutrition supplements and vitamins they need, reasonable allowance to meet their day to day expenses, possible individual sponsors until the end of next year and proper training guidance to go for their final targets.

They should be contracted athletes, like in cricket, so that they would feel secured at least until the Games are over. Once the veteran elite athletes retire by the end of next year, fresh talent should be absorbed into the pool, while retaining the services of remaining athletes like high jumper Wijesekera.

This super pool should have continuous progress with annual revision to absorb new prospects to replace the athletes who retire. One other important aspect is the men's 4 x 400m relay event, which has always been Sri Lanka's plus point at Asian level. Our team has always been within the top 20 in the world and even had a rating between 12 to 18 from time to time.

Hence, we must groom a good team with two stand byes. As tried out by other countries, we must have two equally good reserve runners who could run in the first and second rounds while we could field the full relay quartet for the semi finals and final. This would give a time gap to 400m individual event specialists such as Amarasekera, Rohan Pradeep and Tillakaratne to prepare for the relay.

It is nice to hear that Jayasinghe has indicated her willingness to run in the women's 4 x 100m relay. Together with Darsha, Jani Chathurangani and a couple of emerging women sprinters, Sri Lanka could aim at the women's 4 x 100m relay gold medal at the forthcoming South Asian Games.

Meanwhile, having read our comments in last week's 'Sportswatch', Secretary to the Ministry of Youth Affairs & Sports, Sugathadasa Ranugge has called for xplanation from national athletic coach Lakshman de Alwis over his alleged remarks made before the recent Asian Championships in South Korea.

It was reported from Incheon that De Alwis, in a pre-championship interview, had said that Sri Lanka would not win a single medal. In fact Sri Lanka won six medals including two golds.

De Alwis has been given two weeks to submit his explanation. But now, De Alwis denies making such comments and states that the local media misquoted him. Those who toured South Korea would know the exact truth.