Passion for sports

President Mahinda Rajapaksa has been a great promoter of sport, giving a helping hand to talented rural sportsmen and women to enter the international arena. He and his family have a passion for sport.

Exactly two decades after Sugathadasa Stadium Complex and Khettarama Stadium were built, President Rajapaksa is the only leader who has shown a keen interest in developing infrastructure facilities for sport.

The new Mahinda Rajapaksa International Sports Complex in Diyagama, Homagama and the Suriyawewa International Cricket Stadium are two classic examples of his interest to take sport to village level. Thanks for his untiring efforts to mark Sri Lanka's place prominently in the international sports map, the 2011 ICC World Cup will come to Hambantota, which has already been picked as a host city. His passion for sport has prompted Sri Lanka to bid to host the 2018 Commonwealth Games in Hambantota.

President Rajapaksa 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.

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 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.

Sri Lanka cricket team has been going from strength to strength, winning the Asia Cup and several other titles during the past five years. It was only last week that Sri Lanka registered its first ever one day international series win over Australia in the Down Under. The Lankan team is making a steady progress towards the World Cup from their World No.3 position.

Sri Lanka also stamped their class in the longer version of the game by reaching the number three 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. Muralitharan became the first bowler to capture 800 wickets in Tests.

Sri Lanka cricket team certainly maintained their consistency and also emerged runners up at the last 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 weeks of pure entertainment that helped him to win the Player of the Series Award.

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.

As usual, Sri Lanka had its own share in the field of athletics and are out to make its presence felt at the 16th Asian Games now in progress in China. Sri Lanka did well to bag three medals at the last month's Commonwealth Games in New Delhi.

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. 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.

The inspiration and motivation given by President Rajapaksa would undoubtedly help Sri Lanka's sportsmen and women to reach greater heights in the world sports arena.