Limited participation for April Athletics trials- Nationals to be open

National Athletics trials which are set to be held from 8-10 April will kick start the athletics calendar this year, but participation will be limited just as for last year’s National Championship.
Sri Lanka Athletics (SLA) will once again be forced to conduct a trial adhering to Health Ministry’s DREAM protocol; hence, they will limit participation using the same methods they used for the National Championship last December.
According to record keeper and senior official of SLA Saman Kumara Gunawardana, SLA will consider appeals and give deserving athletes a chance at the trials despite them not making the cut, just like they did last year.
The April trial will be an opportunity for athletes to be selected for the forthcoming 2021 Tokyo Olympic Games by achieving direct qualification standards, or by increasing their present world ranking positions with a good performance.
The trial will also be used to evaluate the present elite and National pools, while a team will be selected to compete at the World Athletics Relay Championship to be held in Poland on 1 and 2 May.
Since the top-8relay teams at the World Athletics Relay Championship get direct entry to the Olympic Games, SLA has identified the importance of World Relays, where President of SLA, Maj. Gen Palitha Fernando, said they are willing to send three relay teams to Poland, focusing on men’s 4×400 and 4x400m Mix relay.  If Sri Lanka does send a team for the World Relays (which commenced in 2014), this will be the first time. However, the 4x800m relay is not included in the Olympic schedule.
Meanwhile, Fernando stated that despite participation at this trial being limited, the National Athletics Championship to be held from 20 to 23 May at SugathadasaStadium will be an open event.
“We hope the situation improves by that time. However, we will make it open for all athletes to participate, and are ready to hold the championship even for six days by limiting the crowd at the Stadium on a particular day to adhere with COVID-19 health protocols, because there are athletes who don’t get the opportunity to perform and we can’t continue to ignore them,” said Fernando.
At the moment only 3000m steeplechase runner Nilani Rathnayaka is within the qualified athletes list for the Tokyo Olympic Games as she is inside the qualification quota due to her world ranking position.
Cancellation of the Asian Athletics championship, which was set to be held from 20-23 May,did significant damage to Sri Lanka’s top athletes’ chances of increasing their world ranking positions. The Asian Championship is categorized high in the World Athletics’ competition categories and gives higher bonus points for athletes based on their performance during the competition, and their position will help them to boost their world ranking, but with cancellation of that event, SL athletes will have to make sure they perform their best on both occasions (in April and May) to at least stand a chance to get the nod based on world ranking position.