Athletics chief Maj. Gen. Palitha Fernando said yesterday that the officials have identified nine events including the women’s 400m hurdles as events in which Sri Lanka could excel at future Asian and Commonwealth Games.
Thus the national pool will be restricted only for these nine events for better management and continuation of the pools in view of next year’s Asian and Commonwealth Games.
The men’s 4×400 relay, javelin, long jump, high jump, triple jump along with the women’s 400m, 800m, 400m hurdles and javelin throw are the events that have been identified as the ones where the Sri Lankan will have best chances in future international meets.
“We are streamlining the system having scrutinized the performances of our athletes in the past,” Fernando said.
“If we look at the recent trends in athletics we have moved out of our traditional frontiers with some impressive performances in different disciplines than what we were excelling a few years back. So we identified them,” he said adding that Sports Minister Mahindananda Aluthgamage has promised to provide the required money to continue these pools in view of the Asian and Commonwealth Games.
He said events such as the women’s 100m, 200m, and 400m and men’s 400 which Sri Lanka has traditionally dominated at the Asian circuit have taken a severe beating in the recent past with none of the new generation of athletes being closer to the greatness of those of yesteryear.
Sri Lanka holds several records at Asian level including the women’s 100m, 200m and 400m Asian Games record.
The selections will be done at the 91st National Championship which will be held at the Sugathadasa Stadium, starting Monday.
The three-day championships will see 1200 athletes including four Maldivians and six Nigerian competing for honours.
Asked as to why the women’s 400m hurdles was included when the event has produced nothing but lack-luster performances at national level, Fernando said: “We have won a medal at the Asian Championships a few years back and we had Christine Sonali Merrill qualifying for World Championships this year. We believe we have potentials to win in this event.”
However, the pampered US based athlete has been below par in recent years and she crashed down in humiliation fashion at both Asian and World Championships early this year.
