Muralitharan, Susanthika win prestigious awards

World renowned cricketing legend Muttiah Muralitharan was awarded the prestigious Most Outstanding Sportsman of the Year award while Sri Lanka's sprint queen Susanthika Jayasinghe walked away with the Most Outstanding Sportswoman of the Year award at the National Sporting Honours awards and felicitation ceremony worked off at the BMICH in Colombo yesterday.

The winners of these awards were selected by a distinguished panel of judges on the basis of the athletes' performance and the nominations received through the respective governing bodies of each sport.

The winners of the Most Outstanding Sportsman and Most Outstanding Sportswoman in the senior category were rewarded with Rs. 300,000 each while the junior category winners were awarded with Rs. 200,000 each for their outstanding achievements.

In addition special awards were also presented to disabled sportspersons in recognition of their outstanding sporting achievements. This event was organized by the Ministry of Sports and powered by Dialog Telekom.

The National Sporting Honours was undoubtedly the biggest sporting event ever to be held in Sri Lanka. A total of 225 sportsmen and sportswomen from across 15 sporting disciplines namely Athletics,

Badminton, Billiards, Boxing, Cricket, Cycling, Golf, Rugby, Shooting, Swimming and Diving, Synchronized Swimming, Tennis, Weightlifting, Wrestling, Yachting and Paralympics were awarded National Colours at the prestigious event.

In addition special awards were presented to the Most Outstanding Athletes for the year 2007 in the five categories of Most Outstanding Sportsman, Most Outstanding Sportswoman, Most Outstanding Junior Sportsman, Most Outstanding Junior Sportswoman and Most Outstanding Disabled Sportsperson.

In addition to the Most Outstanding Athletes for 2007 awards, five more awards were presented to the most popular athletes in the categories of Dialog's Most Popular Sportsman, Dialog's Most Popular Sportswoman, Dialog's Most Popular Junior Sportsman, Dialog's Most Popular Junior Sportswoman and Dialog's Most Popular Disabled Sportsperson.

These awards were based on popular votes received from the general public via SMS and newspaper coupons. Anuruddha Ratnayake emerged as Dialog's Most Popular Sportsman and Damayanthi Dharsha Dialog's Most Popular Sportswoman having secured a total of 29,359 and 59,820 votes respectively.