Former president of the Sri Lanka Tennis Association and the current Vice president of the Asian Tennis Federation, Business tycoon Suresh Subramaniam was handed the reins at the National Olympic Committee at the Annual General Meeting held on the 23rd of February.
Subramaniam swooped to victory over Rohan Fernando, President of the Rowing Association as he managed to win 18 out of 31 votes with Fernando receiving 12 votes and 01 vote being invalid at the NOC elections held on Friday (23rd).
The elections which were held after a long period of times was keenly contested by two fractions headed by Subramaniam and Fernando. Subramaniam will replace the incumbent president Hemasiri Fernando who has held the post for close to two decades but had decided against competing in the elections this time around.
Incumbent Secretary General of the NOC, Maxwell De Silva who also contested from the Subramaniam faction will continue in the post as he was elected again as to the post for another term with a majority of 19 votes. De Silva’s closest rival Pritiviraj Perera who had aligned himself with the Fernando fraction only managed 12 votes. Senaka Ranasinghe of the Cycling association was appointed as the treasurer of the committee.
Four Vice Presidents were also elected to the committee with Maj. Gen Palitha Fernando (Pres. Athletic Association) and Joseph Kenny (Pres. Yachting Association) managing to secure 18 votes respectively while Sumith Edirisinghe (Pres. Hockey Federation) and Asanga Senevirathne (Pres. Sri Lanka Rugby) was the other two selected for the position of Vice presidents.
The newly elected NOC will have to get to work straight away with a busy year ahead of them. The Gold Coast Commonwealth Games will be held in April this year which will be followed by the 18th Asian Games that will be held in Indonesia in August.
