VETERAN OLYMPIANS HEMASIRI AND PREMA FELICITATED AT NOC SL SGM
Immediate past president of the National Olympic Committee Hemasiri Fernando who headed the august assembly for 21 years from 1997 to 2018 and veteran Olympian Prema Pinnawela who held the position of Secretary General of the National Olympic Committee for fourteen long years from 1983 to 1997 were felicitated at NOC SL’S Special General Meeting held at its headquarters, yesterday.
Both these Olympians were heralded with honorary life memberships and felicitation plaques to this effect were handed over to Pinnawela from NOC by President Suresh Subramaniam and its Secretary General Maxwell de Silva, during the general meeting was in progress. Pinnawela is the present secretary of the Amateur Athletic Association of Sri Lanka.
Prior to that, the NOC also had named the Olympic House auditorium, after Hemasiri as a mark of respect and to honour his contribution to the movement by calling it the “Hemasiri Fernando Auditorium”. Upon taking over as President of the NOC in 1997, Hemasiri also held many important portfolios in the government sector
and was instrumental in moving the NOC office to the more spacious Sugathadasa Stadium office from an office room at the Race Course where the ‘Olympic House” dream was hatched.
The real four storied “Olympic House” became a reality on 23 September 2008 amidst a huge gathering of dignitaries.
Fernando is also the Immediate Past President of the Commonwealth Games Association(cga) of Sri Lanka and also the honorary Vice President, Olympic Council of Asia (OCA) - (since July 2011) and Regional Vice President (Asia), Commonwealth Games Federation (CGF) - (since 2007).
Among the other important decisions that were passed were the addition of two new members to its executive committee in Surfing Federation of Sri Lanka and National Association for Climbing and Mountaineering in Sri Lanka while Ski and Snow Board Association were granted associate membership without voting rights.