“NOC SL - Crysbro Next Champ” list of scholarships completed

The Crysbro- National Olympic Committee’s “Next Olympic Champ” programme is now complete and it could be described as one of the most unique and futuristic concepts that have been set on course in Sri Lanka so far in the sports realm.

Initially, the selection committee selected twelve athletes and added the remaining eight just prior to island- wide travel restrictions. The main aim of this programme is to help and sustain identified junior athletes of Sri Lanka and elevate them to be the next contenders of top tier athletes and produce medal winners with eyes for the third Olympic Medal in Lankan history.

Shehan Ambeypitiya, who was one of the live wire selectors of this programme, described the programme in this manner; “I ended up winning a lot of international medals those days, but I did not have the cushioning and backing that this programme could offer to hone my skills.

“The selectors, especially Ineka (Cooray) and I, were absolutely careful to do the right selections and to reach this final total of twenty athletes and we interviewed around seventy probable athletes, who were equally good and had the credentials to back it. Just to elaborate this point; to select the last lot of athletes, we waited till the last National athletic trials which were held recently. There, we discovered a young high jumper who cleared 1.68 metres and she is in the programme now.

Under this programme each athlete gets an accumulated amount of Rs. 47,000.00 per month for their training. Vindicating this, the programme already has the name and the services new- kid- in- the- block Milka Gehani who has taken the Lankan Gymnastic world by storm by becoming

Sri Lanka’s first gymnast to pass the qualifying status for the 2020 Olympics. In all probabilities, she would become a real Olympic hope the moment she gets the official nod.

“All twenty athletes who are in the fray are hand- picked winners of various sports and they have the option of growing with the Crysbro-NOC SL sports family to grow beyond the stipulated agreement of two years.”