South Asian Games: The mini-Olympics coming to a close

Those of you who have been following the biggest sporting event of our country, the 10th South Asian Games, will no doubt view the spectacular closing ceremony tomorrow, with mixed feelings.

Considered as our own mini-Olympics, the Games which commenced on August 18 at the Sugathadasa Stadium would have resulted in shouts of victory and tears of defeat, not only from the participants, but all of you who watched your heroes/heroines fall or succeed in their respective events.

The games comprised 20 disciplines with the participation of more than two thousand competitors. This event has put our country in the international sports map for the second time. According to one of the over-joyed officials, "This was the biggest and the best games ever held in Sri Lanka. We hosted the events for the second time, and it was unique due to various reasons.

Some of them are the fact that two thousand competitors will win 1,370 medals, (417 Gold, 417 Silver and 536 Bronze), and that the games recorded the highest number of competitors, and the highest number of events. It is encouraging to note that a number of school children participated in the opening ceremony.

There were nine venues for the 20 disciplines. The rowing events were shifted from the Beira Lake to Bolgoda Lake, hockey from Colombo to Matale and the shooting events to Welisara Navy Camp. This year's Games saw the introduction of five sports disciplines, i.e. Archery, Wushu, Cycling, Judo and Hockey. As we featured in our previous Sports track page, there were only five events in the first SAF Games organised in 1984.

Now that the Games have come to a close and it's time to make the presentation, it is not hard to know who will walk away triumphantly with the gold-plated Sri Lanka Telecom Trophy from among the eight countries that participated; India, Pakistan, Bangladesh, Maldives, Nepal, Afghanistan, Bhutan and Sri Lanka. This trophy goes to the country that has won the most number of gold medals and by now, you must be well aware of it.

The 20 disciplines included football, athletics, badminton, volleyball, karate, boxing, table tennis, judo, squash, archery, weight lifting, wrestling, wushu, taekwondo, rowing, cycling, swimming, shooting, kabaddi and hockey. Susanthika Jayasinghe, the Bronze medalist at the Olympic Games, was Sri Lanka's overall captain. At the time this paper went into print, the medals table was not finalled. So, we regret that we cannot come up with the latest news.

However, we hope you enjoy the colourful and spectacular closing ceremony, which is scheduled to include a fireworks display sponsored by China.

Teen who won a gold!

Now that we are but one day away from the conclusion of the SAF Games or the South Asian Games (SAG), as it is now called, it is evident India is leading in the medals table.

Sri Lanka too has won many medals, including golds.

Most of you may have seen on television and read about the brilliant and outstanding teenager, Mayumi Raheem, who won the first gold medal for our country in the 100 metres breast stroke event. It was the second event held on the opening day of the swimming events.

She not only won the gold medal, but also set a new Games record as well, in the finals. She also won a silver medal in the 50 metres free style event with a time of 28.87 seconds.

Mayumi Amiranthi Raheem, the daughter of Mohamed Ramzi Raheem and Ranjika Sirisekara is just 14 years old. Mayumi who was previously a student of Musaeus College, Colombo, is now a student at Unitus World College of South Asia, in Singapore. She migrated to Singapore because her father works as a pilot in Singapore Airlines. She is also a member of the Singapore swimming society and trains under the Australian coach, Yarn Murphi.

Her aim is to be an international swimmer one day. She has succeeded in bringing fame to her motherland and we wish her the very best in all her future endeavours too.