Ten Million Sponsorship for Sri Lanka Athletics
After years without any regular sponsorship, Sri Lanka Athletics finally got the funding they need to take athletics to the next level, with Lyca Mobiles ‘Gnanam Foundation’ coming forward with a Rs. 10 million sponsorship package.
Sri Lanka stunned the arena last year during the South Asian Games in Nepal by securing 15 Gold medals and beating India into second place for the first time since 1991, where the athletes efforts were appreciated islandwide, with special messages from even the President Gotabaya Rajapaksa.
President of Athletics Association of Sri Lanka (AASL), Maj.Gen Palitha Fernando, said that the funding will be utilised for National Athletics meets, Athletes development, and to provide competition kits and equipment. AASL does not plan to utilize these funds for foreign tours.
He further said that Sri Lanka had high hopes for 2020, especially with the Asian Junior Championship which was scheduled to held, where Sri Lanka had set up a pool of athletes since 2019. Also, with the SAG performace, they were prepared to send selected athletes for international competitions during the early period of 2020 to gain qualification for the Tokyo Olympics.
But Covid19 hampered Sri Lanka’s plans as the world went into lockdown, with meets such as the Asian Junior Championship where Sri Lanka could have won several medals, being cancelled.
Neverthless, Fernando said the lockdown also came as blessing in disguise as all the National athletes recovered from injuries they sustained, and are now ready to compete. AASL has scheduled National trials to be held from 23 to 25 October, which is open event to be conducted following Covid-19 health guidelines and social distancing.
National pools will be updated following performance at that trials, and only selected athletes will be allowed to compete during the National Championship to be held on 5-6 December after Olympic qualification and world ranking system resumes from 1 December.
AASL is also hoping to conduct Junior National trials in November – depending on GCE (OL) exam dates – to select pools targeting the Asian Youth Championship and World Junior Championship to be held next year.
The Gnanam Foundation was founded in December 2010 by Subaskaran Allirajah, the Chairman of Lyca Mobile, together with his mother Gnanambikai Allirajah and Co-Founder Prema Subaskaran, in order to provide assistance to marginalised communities and those who have been forgotten.
