At an event held at the Duncan White Auditorium situated at the Ministry of Sports, 111 athletes and 38 coaches belonging to five disciplines were handed nutrition allowance
The event was graced by Hon. Minister of Sports, Dayasiri Jayasekara, and saw the sportsmen belonging to national pools of Athletics, Rugby Football, Weight lifting, Judo and Karate, receive the allowance. A total of Rs. 4,670,000.00 will be spent monthly on providing the allowance for the athletes, which is aimed at motivating the sportsmen to put on the best performance at the Commonwealth Games and the Asian Games which are the two major tournaments lined up this year.
Speaking to the medi, Minister Jayasekara stressed on the importance of regular evaluation of the performance of these athletes as the government was spending a sizable amount every month on them. “We as the ministry and the department of sports development have made arrangements for the national pools to be formed targeting the major tournaments on the calendar. We have also decided that an allowance should be handed to the athletes. With all this in place we have set up a process to measure the performance of the athletes. Under this allowance scheme the ministry is spending Rs.4.6 million. As the government, we will be spending a huge sum of money until the end of September and it’s the responsibility of the coaches and the athletes to makes sure that their performance are increased.”
He was also very stern about the athletes understanding the importance of maintaining their performance “I noticed with performance reviews that were presented here there were dips timing of some track athletes, and in sports like weightlifting if we cannot reach a certain level we should not be sending those lifters on tour. It is the same for rugby. Improving your performance is your responsibility and you need to be dedicated to be able to do it. We have appointed a committee comprising of Susanthika Jayasinghe, former army general Daya Rathnayake, Director General of Sports medicine unit Dr. Lakshman Edirisinghe and chaired by Sunil Gunwardene to assess which team should participate at the Commonwealth Games. we have currently received team list of 87 and I am not ready to take that full list to Gold Coast “
Describing the thinking behind the allowance for the national athletes Minister Jayasekara added that “We are looking for results, a big obstacle for that has been the financial burdens that the athletes are facing which hampers their performance. We have now managed to source an amount to the athletes to be able to cover that cost. We have increased payments for some athletes, as an example there are some who receive a sum of 60,000.00 a month, while the others may only receive 35,000 or 30,000 it is solely according to the categorization we have on the prospects and the results they have shown”
Minister Jayasekara also revealed that he has handed over a proposal to the cabinet which has received the nod from the top wigs of the government “I have proposed to provide employment for all the unemployed athletes in the national pool in the Government sector. We have received the approval from cabinet and I have also informed several unions to send in names on the unemployed national pool members. This way we will be able to curb the school talent that go away from sport in search of employment”
With several steps being taken by the government to supply the athletes of the country with a setting to do their best, the ball is now on the court of the athletes to step up and deliver at the two major international competitions in the Commonwealth games and the Asian games.
