SAG is now ready SL must go for an immediate schedule
“The 13th South Asian Games (SAG) has now been confirmed. The Nepal organizing is ready. The official invitation has now been received by us. The dates are December 1 to 10 end of this year and few months remains for the SAG. Local associations have already started training. Some other associations will start training in the immediate future,” said Suresh Subramanium, President, National Olympic Committee of Sri Lanka (NOCSL) to the Daily Mirror.
We must train under an immediate schedule as we have only a limited period. The National Associations and the Department of Sports Development must take responsibility to this. The NOC is only coordinating the events
“We must train under an immediate schedule as we have only a limited period. The National Associations and the Department of Sports Development must take responsibility to this. The NOC is only coordinating the events,” said Suresh.
The 13th South Asian Games were postponed twice this year. It was originally scheduled to be held in March and August but due to bad ground conditions it was postponed. The Sri Lanka Contingent is expected to be around 750 to 800 with officials.
In the history of the SAG is the premier regional sports competition featuring eight countries. It is a regional event similar to the SEA (South East Asian) Games.
The inaugural SAG was held in 1984 in Dasarath Rangasala Stadium in Kathmandu, Nepal September 17 to 23. Initially it was called South Asian Federation (SAF) Games and later known as South Asian Sports Federation Games. It was in the Colombo Games held in 2006 that the event was rebranded as SAG (South Asian Games).
Seven countries participated in the SAG until 2004. They were India, Sri Lanka, Pakistan, Nepal, Bhutan and Bangladesh. Afghanistan was admitted as a new member at the Islamabad SAG in 2004. Both SAF and SAG competitions have been held during a time span of 35 years.
Apart from Bhutan, Maldives and Afghanistan, all other countries have hosted the Games.
The SAG will be held in Kathmandu for the third time this year. Nepal staged the inaugural Games in 1984 and the eighth edition in 1999. Sri Lanka has hosted the Games on two occasions. The first time was in 1991 and the last occasion was in 2006.
In the past 12 editions of the SAG, India has won the most number of medals totally 2,046. Among them were 1,088 gold, 632 silver and 326 bronze medals leading the medals tally in every Game. Pakistan is lying in second position overall having bagged a total of 1,128 medals.
Sri Lanka occupy the third position for the number of medals achieved totaling 1,114. This includes 210 gold, 351 silver and 593 bronze medals.
In the history of SAG, Sri Lanka was dominant in athletics on one occasion during the Colombo edition of the Games in 1991. Sri Lanka’s athletes won l5 gold, 7 silver and 11 bronze medals ahead of India who won 10 gold, 7 silver and 10 bronze medals. The inaugural Games began with five sports:
Athletics, swimming, boxing, weightlifting and football. This year’s 13th edition SAG will have 27 disciplines. Sri Lanka won a total of 37 medals at the inaugural Games in 1984. It included 7 gold, 11 silver and 19 bronze medals. The gold medals came from athletics and swimming. The athletic gold medals came from Simone Van Heer (100 metres women), Ramani Mangalika (200 metres women), Hemalal Priyankara (100 metres men), Ruwan Chandratilleke (400 metres men) and 4 x 400m men’s relay team (Ruwan Chandratilleke, E.K.C Gunawardena, George Sunil Rodrigo and Ranjith Aluwihare) while Julian Bolling won two gold in the pool.
In the history of SAG, swimmer Julian Bolling is the leading gold medalist for Sri Lanka. He also holds the record for representing Sri Lanka in five editions of SAG from 1984 to 1991 during which he won 15 gold medals.