NEW SAG RULING LEAVES ATHLETES IN DOLDRUMS

The organizers’ decision to limit entries to one athlete per event in the South Asian Games athletics competition and to scrap some of Sri Lanka’s Gold medal-winning events has left national athletes baffled, outraged and dejected and the Athletics Association of Sri Lanka in a quandary with some tough selections to be made.

For years the South Asian Games’ major area of competition, Athletics featured two athletes per event from a participating country: an arrangement which allowed Sri Lanka to secure two medals in many events – sometimes both the Gold and Silver medals.

Indeed, in the SAG’s last edition India (28) and Sri Lanka (9) shared all the gold medals on offer in athletics events whereas the 2019 host nation, Nepal had to be satisfied with a solitary bronze medal.

It’s understandable, therefore, that as the host nation Nepal is looking for an opportunity to win a few consolation medals in forthcoming athletics events.

Thus the SAG organizers have now brought forward the new rule with the intention of increasing the distribution of medals among participating nations instead of allowing the traditional dominance of India and Sri Lanka in the games to continue. Whereas earlier it was primarily India and Sri Lanka that shared in the spoils of victory with two athletes each – four superior contestants – shutting out other participants in the race for the three medals on offer for each event, the new rule will break this vice-like monopoly.

Nimali Liyanarachchi

But the decision has left the Athletics Association with some tough choices during the National Championship next month where the local selection trials may produce a better standard of competition than the SAG itself. The NAC, which will be held on 16-18 August at the Sugathadasa Stadium, Colombo will serve as the final selection trials for the South Asian Games.

“We will be pooling two athletes per event in the SAG squad. But only the first athlete will get the chance to compete at SAG unless there’s an injury concern”, said senior AASL official Saman Kumara Gunawardene.

Furthermore, scrapping more major athletics events too has left athletes devastated as their opportunities for winning medals had been already been curtailed even before the competition commenced. Women’s Hammer Throw and Women’s Pole Vault had already been scrapped from SAG competition in 2016, even though those events feature in almost all other major athletics competitions, including the Olympic Games and the Asian Championship.

Now the Men’s Hammer Throw and Men’s Pole Vault are also being dropped from the SAG’s 2019 edition.

Sri Lanka’s Ishara Sandaruwan is one example of the many athletes left holding a short straw. He won the Gold medal in the Pole Vault during the last SAG in 2016, where he cleared the 4.90m mark to set a new Games record, and is currently South Asia’s number one in the event; but is now left to puzzle over the fickle fate that has denied him the chance of winning the medal and accolades he has trained so hard for. And Ishara is not out in the cold alone …

Interestingly the steeple chase event has been added to the competition having not featured in both last two edition. Nepal won the Gold medal in men’s 3000m steeple chase in 2006 edition which is the last time steeple chase feature in SAG.

Winning a SAG medal has been dream of many Sri Lanka athletes as it has been one of the few realistic goals they can hope to aim for in view of the basic training facilities available locally, and many deserving athletes will be deprived of their sole opportunity of scoring success in their chosen specialty on the international stage as a result of the restrictive new SAG ruling.

Earlier the Commonwealth Games Weight Lifting authorities adopted a similar ruling as well: limiting participation to just one athlete per country for each weight category.

The South Asian Games 2019 is scheduled to be held on 01-10 December in Nepal.