Maj. Gen. Manada
Yahampath
President of the Sri Lanka Aquatic Sports Union (SLASU) Major General Manada Yahampath is seeking major sponsors for the development of the aquatic sports like swimming, diving, water polo and artistic swimming in Sri Lanka during his two-year-tenure.
“SLASU is a clean sports body and there are no clubs and other relevant organizations involved in. So, we have a free hand to develop the sports. Our major concern is sponsors to harness the outstation talent and develop them,” said Maj Gen Yahampath, Commandant of the Army War College (AWC).
Aquatic sports have been dominated by members of elite families in Colombo and suburbs. But Sri Lanka is a country which has multi-talented athletes in the outstations. The newly-appointed administration has put forward a strategic plan to harness the countryside talent.
“We are looking forward to invest in infrastructure for harnessing talented athletes, coaches and technical officers to improve all four aquatic sports across the country,” said Maj Gen Yahampath.
For the ensuing two years, SLASU has five vice presidents who have been handed major responsibilities for the development of the key segments of aquatic sports, swimming, diving, water polo and artistic swimming.
Outstation sports development will be handled by Senior DIG SSP Chaminda Bamunuarachchi, retired DIG Hetti Hewage Chulasiri will be overseeing diving and former SLASU president Nethru Nanayakkara has been appointed as one of the five vice presidents to look after artistic swimming and water polo.
Carlo Beddeliyanage will take over the Masters’ Aquatic Sports and the rest is yet to be appointed by the Education Ministry representative to oversee the Ministry-related matters.
SLASU is fully-prepared to field athletes for the five major international tournaments. Selection committees have named a national pool for the upcoming local and international tournaments. (TBR)
