Athletics Trial postponed indefinitely

by Reemus Fernando

Sri Lanka Athletics decided to postpone its first major athletics competition scheduled for late October yesterday due to the emergence of a second wave of Covid 19 in some areas of Gampaha district.

“Sri Lanka Athletics’ Executive Committee decided to postpone the Athletics Trials indefinitely due to the present health situation of the country,” a statement from Sri Lanka Athletics noted.

The athletics governing body had planed to end the Covid 19-forced long lay off with the First National Trial on October 23. The three day event was to be the first major national track and field event to be held after all sports came to a stand still in March.

While few other sports, namely cricket, football and volleyball had started their national level competitions, the track and field sport was about to commence competitions for the year.

The SLA had planed three national competitions, the first national Trial, Junior National Championship and the Senior Nationals to be held in October, November and December.

Sri Lanka Athletics has not postponed the other two events.

“We were compelled to postpone the Trial due to the current health situation. We have postponed only the Trial,” Palitha Fernando, the president of Sri Lanka Athletics told The Island.

Sri Lanka Athletics’ decision comes a day after the Sports Ministry decided to cancel the Cycling, Race Walking and Marathon events of the National Sports Festival. The grueling road events were scheduled to be held at Kataragama over the weekend.