LSR to stage Surfing event at Arugam Bay on September 26 and 27
Lanka Sportreizen (LSR) is making arrangements to organize and conduct an Open / National Surfing event with the blessings of the Sports Ministry and the Surfing Federation of Sri Lanka (SFSL) on September 26 and 27 at Arugam Bay.
This event will coincide with the World Tourism Day which falls on September 27.
More than 70 surfers both local and foreign are expected to take part in this event.
Local surfers who have been ranked will take part in the National competition while over 2,000 foreigners who are stranded in the country since the COVID-19 outbreak will also be given an opportunity to participate in this event. The Open competition will be held on September 26 and the National tournament on September 27.
This is the second national level sports event to be held in Sri Lanka following the viral outbreak; the first being the highly successful FFSL President’s Cup 2020 tournament.
LSR organises three events in Sri Lanka as part of their international calendar – LSR International Colombo Marathon, Rumble in the Jungle and UCI Sri Lanka T-cup.
Mobitel (Pvt) Ltd Sri Lanka and Lin Asia Holdings (Pvt) Ltd will be the main sponsors for this event.
These details were disclosed at a press briefing held at the Sports Ministry auditorium which was graced by Sports
Minister Namal Rajapaksa, a keen surfer himself.
“The economy of a country can be developed through sports. Therefore the Sports Ministry has formulated a fiveyear strategic plan with the Ministry of Tourism and private sector to revive the economy through sports. We anticipate to generate a revenue of one billion dollars to the country through sports tourism in the next five years. We hope to conduct international cricket and kabaddi tournaments following health ministry guidelines in future. The aim is not to burden the government treasury for sports activities. Our ultimate goal is to make sports a professional career option for aspiring stars,” said Minister Rajapaksa.
LSR Founder and Chairman Thilak Weerasinghe said they hope to conduct their local and international events which were postponed because of the pandemic.