Scheduling mishaps by World bodies leave youth athletes in quandary
– Only two day gap between World youth and Commonwealth youth championships
– SL athletes asked to concentrate on Commonwealth youth
Scheduling of two of the most recognized International Youth Athletics Championships, The Commonwealth Youth Games, and IAAF World Youth Championship, have left worldwide youth (Under 18) athletes as well as IAAF member bodies of international countries in a quandary as there’s only a two day gap between the two meets.
The IAAF World Youth Athletics Championship 2017 (WYC) will be held from 12 to 16 July in Nairobi Kenya and The Commonwealth Youth Games (CYG) will start on 19 July in Bahamas and go on till 23 July.To top that flying time of a commercial airline is around 24-26 hours, as all the available flights from Kenya to Bahamas will have at-least two stop overs, including one in USA, which makes it almost impossible for young athletes to compete in both events.
According to Saman Kumara Gunawardana, the long time recorder/statistician and athletics analyst of the Athletics Association, as well as Chairman of Selectors at AASL, said this is the first instance that two high profile international athletics championships are to be held within a gap of a few days like this. The CYG is held once in four years, while World Youth is held once in two years
As a precaution, AASL has asked the two athletes, who have achieved qualifying standards for the IAAF World Youth Championship, namely Navod Sankalpa (400m hurdle) and Ravishka Indrajith (400m) to focus on CYG instead of World Youth, as they have a better opportunity of winning a medal at CYG. Asmika Herath will only be able to compete in the World Youth as her pet event 2000m steeple chase isn’t in the schedule of CYG.
Yet it will take away a once in a lifetime chance from youth athletes to compete at a World Youth Championship which may not be to the liking of the athletes, though they are forced to make a choice due to scheduling.
Nevertheless this will affect athletes from most of the top countries such as United Kingdom, Jamaica, Australia , India, South Africa, and even both host countries Kenya and Bahamas, as they too will have to prioritize and send their athletes accordingly for the championships, which in either case will not see the best of youth athletes competing in one championship.
Jamaica topped the medal tally in 2013 edition of the IAAF World Youth Championship followed by Kenya with Australia in fourth place, while athletics powerhouse USA finished in fifth position. In the last edition it was USA who topped the medal tally with Kenya again in second place.
In the Commonwealth Youth Games 2015 South Africa placed second with Australia third followed by Kenya and Jamaica in fourth and fifth while UK finished sixth. This means a few top countries who dominated both championships over the past years will not see their best athletes competing against each other, depending on the choice they are going to make regarding the two championships.
Theoretically there is a possibility of athletes competing in both events if they are provided with charter flights from Kenya to Bahamas at the conclusion of the World Youth, but then comes the technical problems from coaching perspective of keeping athletes in peak form for two meets across continents with several hours of flying, which any of the world coaches won’t like to do due to possibility of injuries to athletes.
According to one top athletic coach as well as Director of the National Institute Sports Science, Sajith Jayalal, he said it’s almost impossible to get a youth athlete ready to compete in both of those events.
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“Coaches and athlete should decide which competition they want to compete in given the circumstances. Athletics powerhouses such as Kenya will be sending two different teams for those championships as they have enough top athletes, but small countries like Sri Lanka will suffer since we have a smaller number of athletes who can achieve the world qualifying standards,” said Jayalal.
Yet Jayalal reckoned even athletes in the powerhouses like Kenya or Jamaica will be faced with this dilemma, as top athletes who could have won at both championships will not get that chance this year.
Nevertheless, all of those issues could have been avoided if the two organizers had a better communication before finalizing their schedule, which could have seen top youth athletes competing in both the championships without being forced to choose one.
According to AASL, any athlete who can achieve World Youth qualifying standard (possibly during the Asian Youth Championship in May) will be free to compete in the IAAF World Youth Championship, as the team for the Commonwealth Youth Games has already been finalized.
Sri Lanka won two silver medals at the 2015 CYG, one silver medal at CYG 2011 and three gold medals at 2008 CYG in athletics, while not winning any medals in IAAF World Youth Games.
