Sports Festival shifted to Matara

Sports Minister Dayasiri Jayasekara confirmed that the National Sports Festival 2017 will be shifted to the Southern Province (Matara) from the Sabaragamuwa Province (Ratnapura) due to delays in laying the new track in Sabaragamuwa.

“Laying the track in Sabaragamuwa is getting delayed and since the Sugathadasa track tender process is also delayed, we decided to shift it to Matara to be held on the refurbished Sports Complex at Kotawila, Matara which was opened last year.”

The shifting of the venue means the National Sports Festival will once again be held on grass track, marking yet another year for athletes who will not be competing the biggest national event on a proper synthetic track.

The last edition of the National Sports Festival was held in Jaffna on a grass track and at the closing ceremony the Minister announced that this year it will be held on a newly constructed track at Sabaragamuwa.

Nevertheless, construction of synthetic tracks in the country, including Sugathadasa Stadium, is delayed due to procrastination in the tender procedure and the Ministry had to call for fresh tenders, which too will take another two months (July) for the processing to be completed.

Despite competing on grass tracks, SL athletes set four National records at the last year’s Sports Festival in Jaffna. Later some of the veteran athletes like Olympic Medallist Susanthika Jayasinghe and Dammika Menike raised many questions regarding the standards and measurement on grass tracks and the validity of those records set on them rather than on a good synthetic track.