Performances at Asian Youth Games give hope for the future

By Samiddha Rathnayake reporting from Singapore

The curtain came down on the 1st Asian Youth Games giving Sri Lankan sports officials plenty of food for thought on the future of Sri Lanka’s athletics. The performances left no doubt whatsoever of the abundance and depth of talent of local youth for the future. The 31 sportsmen and women who represented the country, just a cross section from local athletics, have established that talent in this field has not dried out, but lacked the proper guidance.

The medal winning athletics team

Many thought that like in the past events, athletics would hold the upper hand over the rest of the disciplines that locals took part in, but the story turned out to be a bit different this time. Even before the commencement of the athletics events the local basketball men’s and women’s teams had started to rock the games village. They won all their fixtures on day one and made a huge impact among the rest of the teams. Both teams were quite consistent in their shooting capabilities and did well to reach the quarter-final stages. Many spoke high of the performance of the local cagers and the need for a proper development programme that would identify the ideal players for the latest versions like FIBA 33.

Beach volleyball was the next plus point for the locals, particularly the boys team. They even managed to beat a strong Japanese team and comfortably conquered their Qatar opponents. One must feel for the girl’s team who had to get used to their new dress code at short notice. Both these teams do have a clear future ahead of them and it is just a matter of proper direction and application that the officials need to address. Particularly with less than a year left for the Youth Olympic Games, these teams can be brought under a structured practice scheme for better results to be achieved.
It was clear that Lankans are still a force in the Asian athletics arena. Apart from the silver medal and the two bronze medals they won, they came fourth in events like boys’ long jump, boy’s high jump and girls’ 100m hurdles. All these results came after a practice session that was conducted for less than a month. If the officials can take the trouble to bring these athletes into a training pool for at lest six months one could expect the results to be far more encouraging at the next year’s youth Olympics.