Sri Lanka Athletics (SLA) is ready to conduct the first selection trials from today (10) to Friday (12) at the Sugathadasa Stadium, Colombo. The three-day event focus on Asian Games and Asian Junior Athletic championships. The Asian Games is scheduled to take place from September 10 to 25 in Hangzhou China while the Asian Junior championship is scheduled to be held from June 16 to 19 in Korea, but it has been postponed to 2023 by Asian Athletics Association. Even though the Asian Junior event has been postponed, SLA decided to conduct the junior trials from today. The 3-day competition will also be used to form a Junior National pool to compete in the South Asian Junior Athletics championship which will be hosted by Sri Lanka next May at the Sugathadasa Stadium.
The Vice President of SLA G.L.S. Perera said without any changes we are ready to conduct these trials from today. “We knew this is a very hard period but we have to prepare for the major events without any failure”. The three-day competition will see both senior and junior (under-20) athletes competing in all events, including relays while National pools will be updated based on the results of this competition, and regardless of any past performance, except for athletes who receive medical exemption due to injury or athletes who are training overseas, it will be compulsory for all National athletes to participate. Yupun Abeykoon, the 100m record holder already based in Italy for training, marathon runner Hiruni Wijayaratne, and high jumper Ushan Thiwanka already based in USA getting ready for the major games.
Few key athletes will not feature in the competition due to their injuries and middle distance women athletes Dilshi Kumarasinghe and Nadeesha Ramanayake are also on this injury list (ankle injuries) while few of the junior athletes couldn’t able to take part in this trails as they are already involved with G.C.E. A/L exams. However key athletes Nimali Liyanarachchi, Gayanthika Abeyratne, Kalinga Kumarage, Nilani Rathnayaka, Amasha de Silva, Rumeshika Ratnayake, Sarangi Silva, and Aruna Dharshana are key attractions of this three-day event.
Meanwhile, the official recorder of SLA Saman Kumara Gunawardena has confirmed that the second trial for the Asian Games and Asian Juniors will take place in March and the final trial will happen to meet entry deadlines in April at the 100th National Athletics Championship.
