With more than 1500 athletes, poised to compete, the 51st Inter Regiment Athletics Championship Meet – 2014 of the Sri Lanka Army got to a start this morning (24) at the Sugathadasa National Stadium.
Major General Amal Karunasekara, Chairman, Sri Lanka Army Athletics Committee, ceremonially opened the event amid a large gathering of athletes and officers.
Events like marathon runs, 5000 m run, high jump events, etc dominated throughout Monday (24), generating a new sense of encouragement and excitement.
Sri Lanka Army as the most leading single organization in the country boasts an unparalleled record in the field of athletics for the last five decades, having produced a few Olympic medalists since the founding of the Army’s Athletics Committee in the year 1950.
1500 Army athletes from all Regiments, in the company of more than 20 other reputed Army-produced athletes who have brought Gold, Silver and Bronze medals home, having participated in many international athletics meets, are to participate in respective events.
Since the inception of the Army Athletics Committee in 1950, chaired formerly by Lieutenant Duncan White who bagged the first-ever Olympic Medal for Sri Lanka, Army athletes in many international meets, including Olympics, Commonwealth Games, Asian Games, South Asian Sports Meet, World Defence Services Athletics Meet, etc, have so far succeeded in securing 29 Gold medals, 37 Silver medals and 28 Bronze medals, a record achievement which no other single establishment in the country has attained to-date.
Lieutenant General Daya Ratnayake at the invitation of Major General Amal Karunasekara, Chairman, Sri Lanka Army Athletics Committee will grace the closing ceremony as the Chief Guest on Wednesday (26).
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