Badra harps on athletics decline

Former Sri Lanka sprint queen Badra Gunawardena believes that the lack of international ground facilities in Colombo have been the biggest obstacle for national athletes to reach their peak. The veteran athlete stressed the importance of having world class artificial tracks in Colombo and in the suburbs if the Sri Lankan athletes are to reach international standards in their future assignments. The former international medalist emphasised the fact that in the past there were several good venues especially allocated for athletes like the Police Park in Bambalapitiya, Race Course ground in Reid Avenue, P. Sara Oval and the Colombo University. The veteran athletic coach lamented on the closure of the popular Sugathadasa Stadium due to a severe blunder by the authorities and as a result the Sports Ministry ground in Torrington Avenue is overcrowded. The former public schools champion and one of the current top coaches in the country stated that due to this over crowding factor at athletic grounds the officials are unable to conduct their full coaching sessions in an affective manner. Badra Gunawardena also noted that the lack of support from the officials have been another reason for Sri Lanka’s decline at international events in the recent past. She believed that even though the Minister of Sports Mahindananda Aluthgamage is determined to develop the sport in the country he has not received the proper backing and guidance from the athletic officials. Badra Gunawardena stated that the Sports Minister Aluthgamage has allocated huge sum of money for infrastructure facilities and for the construction of new venues but has not received the same kind of assistance from his officials. She also stressed the importance of nurturing and guiding the promising young athletes after they leave school following a very successful schools athletic career.

Gunawardena was disappointed that these athletes are thrown into the wilderness after their schools career with no proper coaching programmme available to further improve their skills. She believed that if the authorities could implement a good three to four year residential coaching programme for these young athletes while providing a sufficient allowance then they could very soon emerge as potential medal winners. The period between 1998 and 2004 was a good example for this fact as Sri Lanka produced several international medal winners including Susanthika Jayasinghe, Damayanthi Darsha, Sriyani Kulawansa, Sugath Tillekeratne, Rohan Pradeep Kumara, Prasanna Amarasekera and RangaWimalawansa who were given incentives and other financial perks under the direction of former Sports Minister S. B. Dissanayake. Gunawardena also no- ted that she was able to return a time of 11.90 seconds during her days while running on grass with the minimum facilities but with the current modern facilities the best time in the women’s 100 metres is still 11.70 seconds. She was completely disappointed with the declining standard in the timing of the men’s and women’s 100 metres and 200 metres events despite the athletes enjoying some of the best facilities compared to the early days. She also noted that a lot of talented rural athletes are not given the opportunity due to lack of coaching and training facilities in those remote areas. Gunawardena urged the authorities to play a major role for the improvement of athletics in the country by providing genuine targets for them through incentives, international training and good nourishments.