National Pool for C’wealth Games

The Athletics Association of Sri Lanka (AASL) has named a 124-member National Athletics Pool in preparation for four major international events to be worked off in 2018.

The pool has been divided into three categories namely the Elite (29), National (68) and Junior (27) and they would be under the supervision of the Coaching Monitoring Panel of the AASL

The four events that are lined-up for next year are the Commonwealth Games in Gold Coast, Australia (April 4-15), South Asian Junior Athletics Meet in Colombo (May 5-6) Asian Junior Athletics Championships in Bangkok, Thailand (June 5-7) and the Asian Games in Jakarta, Indonesia (August 18-September 2).

Sri Lanka is eligible to field only five athletes (three Men’s) and (two Women’s) and two officials for the Commonwealth Games.

However, the AASL has requested from the National Olympic Committee (NOC) to increase the number of athletes who could compete at this event.

The final selection trials for the Commonwealth Games would be held on February 2 at the Mahinda Rajapaksa Sports Complex in Diyagama.

As the Sugathadasa Stadium track and the Mahinda Rajapaksa Sports Complex track is still under construction the AASL has also requested from the Ministry of Sports to provide overseas training for the National Athletics Team soon after the selection trials.

This year the National athletes had the opportunity of training in India ahead of the Asian Athletics Championships in which they were able to win One Gold Medal and four Silver Medals.