IAAF KIDS ATHLETICS 2015
The inaugural IAAF Kids Athletics programme organised by the Ministry of Education and the Athletics Association of Sri Lanka (AAA) and sponsored by Nestle Lanka PLC held at the Bogambara grounds in Kandy ended with roaring success.
The programme spearheaded by M.W. Wijeratne, Director of Education Central Province and Ms Asoka Panditharatne Primary Director of Education Central Province was conducted for children from Grade 3 to 5 comprising of 40 schools in the Kandy district.
The children from the 40 schools were selected after the conducting of the division athletic meet in April and were categorized into three groups of boys, girls and mixed (Sinhala, Tamil).
The main idea of the programme was to train and encourage the children in order to get them interested in sports activities and to lay the platform to enter sports from a young age.
The skills of the children were tested in various sports like rope skip, knee throw, hurdles, forward squat jump, rotation throw, pole vault, target throw, formula 1 and endurance which would help them understand more about sports when they grow up.
The schools divided into four groups of colours Blue, Green, Pink and Orange competed in these activities, battling for honours which saw Vidyartha coming out as the boys champion, Girl’s High School the girl’s champion and Thalathuoya Kanishta Vidyalaya the mixed schools champion.
Chief guest at the opening and closing ceremonies was B.A. Abeyratne, Director of Sports Minister of Education with Bandula Egodage Assistant Vice President, Corporate Affairs Nestle Lanka PLC and Chairman Export Development Board gracing the occasion as the guest of honour.