Sugathadasa forbidden for athletes, rented for religious event for two weeks

Sri Lanka’s up and coming junior and senior athletes who are preparing for several important international athletics events will not be able to use the Sugathadasa Stadium for more than two weeks after the authorities rented the facility for a religious event from Monday.

Athletics coaches and enthusiasts expressed disappointment over the unavailability of the much needed facility at a crucial juncture.

Athletics fraternity were crying foul over the absence of a proper track for more than two years after the synthetic tracks at the Sugathadasa Stadium and Diyagama remained in dilapidated condition. There was immediate results after the track at the stadium in Colombo was renovated recently. The Sri Lanka Athletics Association hosted the South Asian Junior Athletics Championship at the Sugathadasa Stadium last month. The local athletes reaped a notable haul of medals with a couple of National Junior records.

The Junior National Athletics Championship which preceded the South Asian event also resulted in an increase number of championship records.

Sri Lanka’s junior athletes won history’s highest number of medals at the recently held Asian Junior Athletics Championship where Aruna Dharshana established a championship record. The country won 12 medals including three golds.

Country’s junior athletes including the medal winners at the event are currently preparing for the IAAF World Under-20 Championship and the Youth Olympic qualifying event which will be held in July.

The Asian Junior Championship gold medal winning team including Aruna Dharshana are currently using the Sugathadasa Stadium for their training targeting the World event where the analysts are forecasting a rare medal or medals for the country’s team.

When contacted to find out the availability of the ground for training an official of the Sugathadasa Stadium confirmed that the facility would not be available for training.

She said that the ground had been booked for a religious event from June 25 to July 10.

The coaches of aspiring young athletes said that the Stadium authorities have refused to grant permission even to train till 8.30 in the morning during the said period.

They have notified relevant officials of the Athletics Association.