The All-Island Kids Athletics competition for the Grade 3’s and 4’s commenced today, at the Bogambara Stadium in Kandy with approximately 6000 kids taking part in the three-day tournament. This is also an upgrade from last year where the tournament had around 3500 students and also was held as a 2-day tournament.
Kids participated from 247 divisional level games across 74 zonal levels and 7 provincial levels this time around. The main aim of the tournament is to develop unity, team spirit, friendship and other character building qualities among children. The Ministry of Education introduced the tournament in 2015 and currently the program conducts team sports for the grades 3, 4, and 5 with the aim of improving Sri Lanka’s future in athletics.
There were four events namely Long Jump, obstacle races, skipping and Basketball running where 12 schools from each division have taken part in Boy’s, Girl’s and Mix categories in the tournament. The timings of all races were recorded and the best out of the best will meet again tomorrow in the semi-finals.
The boys’ category is being led by Kottawa Dharmapala Vidyalaya, followed up by Dharmaraja Kandy in second place at the end of the first day’s events. The battle for the top spot was on from the on-set as both schools top scored last year as well.
In the Girls’ Category and the Mixed categories, the points sareeparated equally to most respective schools. Day 02 will feature many rotation basis events and hence will give out clear winners.
The opening ceremony was graced by the Deputy Minister of Education – Mr.Sunil Jayaweera a Special consultant Sports-Ministry of Education and Col Manjula Kariyawasam the Director of Sports Ministry of Education.
Stay logged to ThePapare.com for updates on the 2nd days’ action.
