Minister of Education, Akila Viraj Kariyawasam, officially announced the 33rd National School Games 2017 at a press briefing held on the 27th of September at the Ministry of Education.
The 33rd edition of the National School Games will commence on the 2nd of October and will run through a span of two weeks until the 15th of October in many venues around Colombo. The festival will feature a record number of 39,000 athletes competing in 28 games. Apart from the athletes, 2700 officials will also be a part of the festival.
Special Advisor to Minister of Education Mr. Sunil Jayaweera explained the inception of the games, “The games were initiated in 1984 by Hon. Prime Minister Ranil Wickremesinghe, back when he was serving as the Minister of Education, with the sole motive of creating the stage to identify the best of school talent to be chosen for the national stage of the country.”
Since its` inception in 1984, after three decades in 2017 the Ministry of Education has introduced two new games to the festival; Beach Volleyball and 7`s Rugby. Minster of Education Akila Viraj Kariyawasam while acknowledging the fact, further stated that Ministry of Education is under discussion in introducing leather ball cricket to the festival in 2018.
Mr. Jayaweera explaining further about the festival, “The idea of Hon. Prime Minster back then was to hold the games in Colombo one year then the following year hold it out of city limits around the island. We have respected the same concept; last year’s games were held out of the city limits and this year we have brought it back to Colombo.”
Apart from a record number of athletes participating in the tournament, for the first time in history the ministry has taken measures to publish 28 technical hand books for each of the 28 sports following the concepts of the major international sporting festivals, Olympics, Commonwealth Games etc.
The opening ceremony of the festival will be held on the 2nd of October under the patronage of Hon. Prime Minister Ranil Wickremesinghe and the closing ceremony will be held on the 15th of October under distinguished patronage of His Excellency the President Maithripala Sirisena.
The torch of the National School Games 2017 will be carried by Asian gold medalist in swimming Akalanka Peris of St. Peter`s College – Colombo 04. He will be joined by B.M. Prabdohi Hansika of Holy Family Convent – Colombo 04 who won the gold medal in triple jump at the athletics competition held in Turkmenistan.
Minister of Education Akila Viraj Kariyawasam speaking about the festival said, “We have reserved 55 million rupees to provide all facilities including food and accommodation to all athletes this year.”
While ensuring the fact that all athletes will be provided with food, the organizers also stated that they have deployed medical teams in venues for assistance of the athletes in case of an injury.
Mr. Jayaweera explaining head-to-head competition among athletes said, “We are sure many records will be renewed in athletics this year as well. Last year a number of 28 records were renewed.”
Adding further, Mr. Jayaweera stated that the Ministry of Education has fulfilled its responsibility by providing the stage to all athletes to be the best in the school’s arena by organizing the sports festival. He added saying that it’s the duty of the national sports bodies and Ministry of Sports to identify and uplift the best talent from here and develop them to national and international level.
The ministry has taken measures to cover every aspect in organizing the festival from the logistics to technical which includes supervisors and separate individuals to handle all appeals and complaints for each sport.
With 39,000 athletes head-to-head in 28 games with two new games being introduced, National School Games 2017 will mark an important place in the history of the festival.
