The President of the Athletic Association of Sri Lanka, Dervin Perera has boasted that Sri Lanka could win over 15 track & field gold medals at next month’s South Asian Games in Colombo.

While all Sri Lankans would undoubtedly wish to see the sons and daughters of our soil making the host nation proud, it would be interesting to see what Perera has lamented at a recent news conference.

Sri Lanka’s richest harvest in the 22-year-old South Asian Games history was registered way back in 1991 when we hosted the Vth edition. After a strenuous year-long preparation both by the sportsmen and the organising committee officials in their respective fields, Sri Lanka not only had the distinction of hosting the best ever Games then but also came out with their best ever performance with a record 44 gold medals.

That included 15 gold medals won by our champion athletes, including Sriyantha Dissanayake and Damayanthi Darsha. Now the question is whether we could better that record this time around? Definitely we would have done so if we had made adequate preparations commencing last January in a systematic manner.

But the bitter fact is that we only pulled up our socks only a few months back after athletes were left in the wilderness without any residential training, proper nutrition, medical guidance or cash allowances on a regular basis. When I say this, the officials may jump at me saying that the athletes are getting all these now

. That may be the case but my point is that the poor athletes should have got that right from the beginning of the season, if they were to make some serious training with a medium-term plan.

Customarily, most of our officials do things at the eleventh hour, but spending the same volume of funds that are good enough for a long-term plan. There is no exception in athletics and as a result, our rural national level athletes had to suffer immense problems in the early part of this year.

Going back to the topic of winning a record of over 15 athletic gold medals, we must think what our real strengths are. Our dominance in South Asia as a dominant force in short distance running is at a great threat. With regional giants India making steady progress with a vision and a long-term plan and Sri Lanka’s unimpressive run with the same old set of ageing athletes will be decisive factors.

We do not have Sriyani Kulawansa, who bagged the women’s 100m hurdles gold, nor do we have that champion long distance Olympic runner Anuradha Indrajith Cooray. Even our experienced elite athletes like Darsha, Susanthika Jayasinghe and Sugath Tillakaratne have constantly been nursing injuries.

There are a few emerging stars of the calibre of high jumper Manjula Kumara Wijesekera. But that is not good enough to meet tomorrow’s challenges. The hard fact is that Sri Lanka has not found or natured enough future material.

In contrast, India, which was well behind us, especially in short and middle distance running, have been working on a long-term target over the past decade. Though their athletic officials and politicians changed, their national sports policy was untouched. Thus, they have been able to gain significant ground and they are now ready to prove what stuff the Indian track & field is made of.

Hence, we must realise that our athletic future is not going to be that rosy, despite the rosy picture painted by our sports officials. Irrespective of what happens at the 10th South Asian Games, the current training process should go on uninterrupted until the 15th Asian Games in Doha in December.

At the same time, we must pick a few with genuine future material to be groomed in the Olympic super pool for the 2008 Beijing Games. There won’t be any future for Sri Lanka athletics unless we work on these lines.

One of Sri Lanka’s brightest moments came in 1997 when President Mahinda Rajapaksa was heading the AASL. Susanthika Jayasinghe brought glory with a silver medal at the IAAF World Championships in Athens, Sri Lanka’s one and only world meet medal so far. As the Sri Lanka AASL chief, the President never boasted. Instead, he let his work to do the talking.

We hope that Sri Lanka could achieve greater success under his leadership if we work on those long-term plans.

There is enough and more talent in the provinces. If we spot them correctly and bring them in with a constructive development plan, winning 20 gold medals at the South Asian Games will definitely be a reality. There are enough and more Susanthikas, Darshas and Tillakaratnes in remote areas. Its unfortunate that there is no concrete plan to spot them and groom them carefully for the future.

The AASL should not always depend on the Sports Ministry for these development plans. They should find big time sponsors. If the AASL administration could impress sponsors like SLT Mobitel, which has come

forward to back this weekend’s National Championships, finding finances for these development projects would not be an uphill task.