Grade 3 and 4 Kids Athletics a great success
The competitions for Grades 3 and 4 of the AllIsland Schools Kids Athletics Championship were staged successfully at the Bogambara Stadium in Kandy on March 3 with over 6000 youngsters taking part. The main titles were won by Dharmapala Vidyalaya Kottawa in Boys’, Handungamuwa Primary School in Girls’ and Albion Tamil School Nuwara Eliya in the Mixed categories.
Dharmapala
Kottawa edged out Dharmaraja College Kandy by a mere two points after finishing off with 281 points to 279 points.
Mahagama Primary
School Horana finished third with 272 points. Handungamuwa Primary claimed 258 points to win the Girls’ championship while Ginigathhena Primary School and Ankumbura Primary School obtained 244 points each to finish off at second and third respectively.
In the Mixed category Albion Tamil School of Nuwara Eliya claimed 226 points to emerge champions followed by Ananda Dassanayake Vidyalaya, Kotmale with 215 points at second place and Upper Cranley Tamil School Nuwara Eliya earned 207 points to secure the third place. “Arranging Kids’ day-today activities like walking, running, spinning and throwing in a fun way, with a scientific perspective, can help meet their physical exercise requirement. Children should engage in physical activity programmes based on the ‘Four F’ concept which are Fun, Fitness, Fundamental, and Friendship, conducted in suitable environments, that provide a balanced physical and academic education. In addition to helping children be fit, sports helps recognise students with a tal- ent for sports and help develop their abilities too,” the organisers stated.
The concept is promoted to develop unity, team spirit, friendship and other character building qualities among children by the Ministry of Education who introduced the Kids Athletics Programme for primary students in 2015. The programme currently conducts team sports for Grades 3, 4 and 5. Nestlé Lanka are the main sponsors of this programme and has been of immense help in increasing the initiative’s popularity among schools. By developing the basic athletic talents of prima- ry students, the goal of the programmes are to improve
Sri Lanka’s future in athletics.
Last year through the programme, more than 175,000 students participated at 247 divisional level games, 74 zonal level games and seven provincial level games. All provinces in the country are represented at this year’s championship, totaling 5,940 children -- 1,920 students from Grade 3, a further 2,016 students from Grade 4 and 2,004 students from Grade 5. Following the competition for Grades 3 and 4 at Kandy, the competition for Grade 5 will take place on April 5 in Colombo.