A great sports promoter

President Mahinda Rajapaksa has been a great promoter of sport and a sport. He and his family have a passion for sport.

The President was a versatile athlete during his day and later played a prominent role as the President of the national bodies for athletics and elle. As the President of the Athletic Association of Sri Lanka (AASL) in 1997, the President played a key role in having star woman sprinter Susanthika Jayasinghe exonerated of doping charges on medical evidence.

Muttiah Muralitharan

The revival of Sri Lanka athletics, which ultimately gave Sri Lanka an Olympic medal after 52 years (in 2000 Sydney Games) began when President Rajapaksa was heading the local athletic governing body. The First Lady, Madam Shiranthi Rajapaksa served as President of the Netball Federation of Sri Lanka. She made an immense contribution towards the promotion of netball.

Their three sons - Namal, Yoshitha and Rohitha, excelled in rugby and all of them went on to lead S.Thomas’ College, Mt. Lavinia with distinction. In fact, the three lads played in the same team - the ‘pack’, for S. Thomas’ College 1st XV Team in 2005, which could well be a record.

The eldest of the three, Namal - the founder President of ‘Tharunyata Hetak Youth Movement’, went on to captain Sri Lanka Under-19 team with distinction while his younger brothers too went on to represent Sri Lanka Youth team.

The influence and guidance of the President was immense to promote sports at various levels. Sri Lanka lived upto expectations as a great sporting nation in the Asian region while making vast strides on the international scene, both here and overseas in almost every game.

Thanks to the untiring efforts of President Rajapaksa whose passion for sport has lifted the entire nation towards a new era. The sports-loving President has made an immense contribution for the promotion and development of sports throughout the island.

Despite his busy schedule, President Rajapaksa has always made it a point to witness some of the key sports events to inspire our sportsmen and women.

It was due to his backing that the World Cup cricket will be coming to Hambantota in 2011. Sri Lanka cricket team has been going from strength to strength, winning the Asia Cup and several other titles during the past four years. Mystery spinner Ajantha Mendis of Sri Lanka Army Sports Club, who made a sensational entry into international cricket, almost single handedly helped Sri Lanka to clinch the Asia Cup with a destructive spell of bowling against a star studded Indian batting line up at the National Stadium in Karachi.

Prasanna Peiris

Sri Lanka also stamped their class in the longer version of the game by reaching the number two position in the ICC Rankings for the first time since gaining Test status. This was a tremendous achievement considering the fact that the country had limited opportunities against some of the top test playing nations.

Spin wizard Muttiah Muralitharan’s huge success was another reason in Sri Lanka achieving many milestones during this period in all forms of the game. After shattering Shane Warne’s record for the most number of wickets in Test cricket, Muralitharan also became the proud holder of two individual World records, a feat that will be hard to emulate.

Sri Lanka cricket team certainly maintained their consistency and also emerged runners up at the ICC Twenty20 World Cup in England.

Sri Lanka may have come out as the second best team in this tournament, but there was one player who was able to gain world focus simply for his innovative style of batting. Dashing opener Tillekeratne Dilshan had the cricketing world on his palm for two week’s of pure entertainment that helped him to win the Player of the Series Award.

Sri Lanka Cricket received another boost when it was granted the opportunity of hosting a semifinal match of the 2011 ICC World Cup in Colombo. Sri Lanka as a co-host nation will conduct a total of 12 matches across three venues during this period.

Sri Lanka netball team in action

Soccer in Sri Lanka took a new turn during this period with the construction of a series of fully fledged stadiums in Kalutara, Colombo, Mannar and Ampara through the courtesy of FIFA, AFC and Basel FC from Switzerland. President graced the opening ceremony in Kalutara to open the Vernon U. Fernando Sports Complex and showed his commitment to promote the poor man’s sport.

As usual, Sri Lanka had its own share in the field of athletics.

Susanthika Jayasinghe won women’s 200m bronze medal at the IAAF World Championships in Osaka, 2007. Chaminda Wijekoon created history when he won a gold medal for his excellent performance in the men’s 1,500m at the Lusafonia Games held in Lisbon this year.

Sri Lanka achieved another rare feat at world level when Prasanna Peiris bagged 65kg weight class silver medal at the 63rd World Bodybuilding Championships last week.

In the ring sport, women boxers came into recognition with Nilmini Jayasinghe winning 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.

In sailing, Sri Lanka won two silver and one bronze medal at the Commonwealth Games weightlifting championships staged in Malaysia.

The Lankan netball team regained the Asian championships with a dazzling performance in Malaysia. Their success had a great amount of significance considering the fact that the last time they won this event was way back in 2002.

In rugby, Sri Lanka finished third at the Five Nations Division One tournament held in Dubai. Despite going in as the underdogs the Lankans produced a superb performance to register impressive victories against Thailand and Singapore. They came from behind to beat a strong Thailand outfit by 51 points to 17 points after having lost the opening fixture against Chinese Taipei 24-36.

The keen interest shown by the President to promote sport should enable Sri Lanka to do even better in future, especially at next year’s Asian Games in China and the forthcoming South Asian Games in Bangladesh.