Brunei training facilities for SL athletes

National Athletics team for the Asian Athletics Championship 2017 will get the chance to train in Brunei for 2-3 weeks on a class one synthetic track ahead of the Asian C’ships, Sports Minister Dayasiri Jayasekara said, when he disbursed funds for the National Athletes’ pool on Tuesday (16th) .

“Since we don’t have a proper synthetic track for training right now we decided to fund them for a training programme in Brunei on a top class track,” said Minister Jayasekara.

The Sports Ministry made a similar offer to the Sri Lankan Athletics team ahead of the South Asian Games last year to train on Indian tracks, but the offer was declined by SL coaches who preferred to work closely with the athletes at home.

The funds distributed by the Ministry yesterday was February allowances payable to athletes, and the Minister promised to settle allowances for the next two months by Monday.

The second National trials will be held on 1 and 2 June at Diyagama, after which the team will be finalized for the Asian Championship to be held from 6-9 July at Bhubaneswar, India. Sri Lanka won just one medal at the last edition of the Asian Championship which came from Nimali Liyanarachchi who secured the bronze medal of the 800m.