Blacky and Nilani win despite Ridiculous Bureaucracy by Sports Officials

Two Gold medallists from last week’s Indonesian Asian Games Test event, Samantha Pushpakumara (Blacky) and Nilani Ratnayake, replied to the injustice meted out to them by winning the men’s and women’s National Cross Country Championship races held at the Golf Course in Nuwara Eliya yesterday.

The two athletes were in Jakarta last week competing for Sri Lanka at the ‘Road to Asian Games 2018’ Test event where both won Gold medals. Both landed at midnight on Friday and took the road directly to Nuwara Eliya to compete in the Cross Country race.

Instead they met with indifferent attitudes by officials on Saturday early morning when officials informed them that they cannot compete at the event as registration of entries closed on Friday evening. As for them their Provincial officials had already informed relevant authorities that these athletes were returning from Indonesia as it was the Director General of Sports Saman Bandara and Director of Sports IP Wijeratne clearly knew that they were returning from Indonesia as it was the Department of Sports Development who reserved their air tickets to represent the country.

After protests were made by both athletes they were allowed to compete as independent athletes as the event is considered as a trial to select the SL team for the forthcoming Asian and South Asian Cross country championship. The points they earned would not be allocated to the relevant Provinces and they will be not be considered for awards and financial rewards.

Ceylon Today understands that rather than taking decisions on their own, Director General of Sports Saman Bandara and Wijeratne should have asked Provincial officials whether there are any protests against these athletes competing and some Provinces had objected. This clearly shows that they were acting with vested interest rather than winning it fairly.

Both athletes replied for the injustice by winning the races easily yet it was heartbreaking for Nilani Ratnayake who won the event for the first time in her career was in tears when the girl who finished second, NM Nandasena was awarded the first place prize . To top that  Nilani’s name wasn’t event mentioned during the presentation.

“We did not go on a private tour, we went to represent the country and won Gold medals for the country. According to these officials we are eligible to represent the country but not our provinces?” questioned a furious Pushpakumara after the race.

All top officials of the Department of Sports Development were there on Saturday at Nuwara Eliya and it was shocking to see such things keep happening.

Samarajeewa mix-up

The course had two different marks to indicate the start and finish which were about 500m apart. The defending champion of the Cross Country Lionel Samarajeewa faced an unfortunate mix up and finished third in the race. Samarajeewa thought the starting point was the finishing point and sprinted through with spectators and supporters shouting at him saying it wasn’t the finish line. Then Samarajeewa almost stopped the race but continued to jog through the rest of the distance without any energy left to challenge Pushpakumara afterwards.

Central Province won both the men’s and women’s team championships. S. Chandradasan of Central Province and NM Nandasena of Eastern Province were recognized as winners and were rewarded with trophies, money and points for the National Sports Festival by the organizers, Department of Sports Development, as they did not consider Samantha and Nilani as the worthy winners. Minister of Sports this is over to you for your consideration.