One Day selection trial to finalise the Asain Youth team

It will be a hectic task for young athletes to make the cut at the selection trials for the Asian Youth (U-18) Athletics Championship, as the Athletics Association of Sri Lanka (AASL) has crammed in 36 finals in a day’s schedule to select the team. The trials will be held tomorrow (19) at the Sugathadasa Stadium.

The 3rd Asian Youth Athletics Championship will be held in Hong Kong from 15-17 March.

AASL has set some tough qualifying standards for the athletes, and many top athletes, especially the sprinters, will be competing in more than one event with little rest between events. On top of that, some events such as the long jump and 100m are scheduled to be worked off at the same time, which has raised many an eyebrow.

Hirusha Abeysekara (St. Peter’s) and Sadeepa Henderson (Gateway), who have excelled equally in the 100m, 200m and long jump events, will have a tough time if they are to compete in all three events within a short span of time. If we take into consideration two preliminary rounds for the 100m and 200m, altogether they will have to compete in five events.

AASL has maintained a youth pool since last year, even though the Sports Ministry has not approved any payments for them.

“We maintain the pool of 20 youth athletes based on their performances last year. We had three meetings and weekend residential training sessions for the athletes, yet they are required to undergo this trial to get into the team,” said President of the AASL, Maj. Gen Palitha Fernando.

“We have a quota of seven athletes and two officials who will be given free accommodation and transport during the competition from the organisers, but if athletes can achieve the given qualification standards we are willing to send more,” added Fernando. However, airfare will have to be borne by AASL, and they hope to seek funds from the Sports Ministry for this purpose.

Any additional athletes above the quota means Sri Lanka will have to bear the entire cost for their domestic transport and accommodation (200 USD per athlete per day) in addition to the airfare.

The performances of the young Sri Lankan athletes have been creditable of late, where the juniors rocked at last year’s Asian Junior Championship with nine medals, including three Gold Medals. In the first edition of the Asian Youth Championship (2015) Sri Lanka managed to win four medals (one Gold, three Silver), but they failed to win a single medal in the second edition (2017).

More Details :- http://www.ceylonathletics.com/events/youth-trials-2019