A sportsman to the core
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President Mahinda
Rajapaksa tries his foot at soccer along with Sports
Minister Mahindananda Aluthgamage and others during the fun
and games time at the workshop for ministers and UPFA MPs at
the Diyatalawa Military Academy last year. |
President Mahinda Rajapaksa has been a great
promoter of sports and contributed significantly towards Sri Lanka's
sports success. His influence and guidance made an immense contribution
to promote sports at various levels.
Thus, Sri Lanka has become a great sporting nation in the Asian
region while making vast strides at world level as well. The
sports-loving President has always made it a point to personally witness
some of the key sports events to inspire our sportsmen and women.
As President of the Athletic Association of Sri Lanka (AASL) in 1997,
the President played a prominent role to have star woman sprinter
Susanthika Jayasinghe exonerated of doping charges on medical evidence.
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President Mahinda
Rajapaksa with the members of the Sri Lankan cricket team |
He has been a keen cricket fan and it is due to his untiring efforts
that the 2010 World Cup cricket was brought to the greens of Hambantota
with a new international stadium. Apart from the Mahinda Rajapaksa
International Cricket Stadium in Sooriyawewa, another brand new cricket
stadium was built at Pallekele to serve the cricket fans in the Central
Province. Premadasa International Stadium in Colombo was re-developed
with modern facilities.
While rehabilitating the Sugathadasa Outdooor Stadium, the Presidents
keenness to promote athletics helped to construct the country's second
international athletic track at the newly constructed Mahinda Rajapaksa
International Stadium in Duyagama, Homagama.
When star batsman Sanath Jayasuriya's international career was in
danger due to poor selection committee decisions in 2005, it was
President Rajapaksa who intervened and meted out for the former Sri
Lanka captain who has now taken to politics after his retirement as a
Member of Parliament for Matara district.
It was when President Rajapaksa was heading the local athletic
governing body in 1997 that Jayasinghe won Sri Lanka's first IAAF World
Championship medal in Athens. Ten years later when President Rajapaksa
became the Head of State, Jayasinghe won her second medal - a bronze at
the IAAF World Championships in Osaka, Japan in 2007.
Prasanna Peiris rewrote Sri Lanka's body-building history with the
country's first ever medal at the World Championship. He bagged a silver
medal in the 65kg weight category at the 63rd World Body-building
Championships.
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The President greets
former Captain of Sri Lanka's Cricket team Kumar Sangakkara
Pix by Sudath Silva |
Sri Lanka athletics achieved another rare feat when high jumper
Manjula Kumara Wijesekera bagged a gold medal at the Asian Championships
in China in 2009.
President Rajapaksa has been a keen rugby fan too. His eldest son
Namal, now a Member of Parliament for Hambantota district, led the Sri
Lanka national rugby team which registered a historic win over Poland
earlier this month.
It was for the first time that Sri Lanka had beaten an European
country in a rugby union Test. Presidents second son Yoshitha Rajapaksa
has been the regular captain of the Sri Lanka rugby team which has shown
great promise in Asian arena. It was due to the blessings of the
President that the Old Race Course grounds in Colombo has been developed
into an international class rugby venue.
Sri Lanka cricket team has been going from strength to strength,
winning the Asia Cup and several other tournaments and cricket series
during the past eight years. Sri Lanka won the Asia Cup beating India in
Karachi. Sri Lanka emerged runners up in 2011 ICC World Cup in India and
also finished second to the West Indies in the 2012 ICC World Cup worked
off in Sri Lanka.
In boxing, Nilmini Jayasinghe won a gold medal at the World
championships in Petersburg, Russia. Her team-mate Anusha Kodituwakku
bagged a bronze medal at the Women's Indoor Games held in Hanoi,
Vietnam. Sri Lanka also won two silver medals and a bronze at the
Commonwealth Games weightlifting championships staged in Malaysia.
Sri Lanka has achieved many more milestones in the international
arena in several other sports. Thanks to the efforts of the
sports-loving President, modern stadia and sports venues have been
constructed at district and provincial levels.
Those are investment for the future. Such efforts would enable Sri
Lanka sportsmen and women to perform even better in the years to come.
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