Absence of coaches hinders better show in London

15 August 2012 07:14 am - 44 - {{hitsCtrl.values.hits}}

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Sri Lankan athletes, who returned after participating at the London Olympics, today charged that a officials had prevented their local coaches from joining them at the games, and this had affected their performance.

Mangala Samarakone who represented the country in the bair rifle shooting event said he had pleaded with the authorities to ensure his coach came to the games, but it was of no avail.

“I asked the authorities to allow either one of my coaches Brigadier K.W.Edmond or Pushpamali Ramanayake to join me but it was not allowed. I even explained to them the need for a coach while competing. During the event I badly felt the need for a coach,” he said.

Sri Lankan captain Niluka Karunaratne said during the pre-quarter finals, the advice of an experienced coach would have been of immense help.

“I had the assistance of a Polish coach and of my father. However when I was playing with the Indian I felt that I should have had an internationally experienced coach by my side,” he said.

According to Media reports 30 officials had accompanied the seven athletes to the Olympics. (Pix and tex by Deepa Adikari)

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Comments - 44

Sammy Wednesday, 15 August 2012 12:24 PM

There should have been coaches accompanying the team and not so much other officials.

hmm Wednesday, 15 August 2012 09:24 AM

agreed!! no point in playing the blame game after the event.. what needs to happen is for the real talent to be identified now itself, give them proper coaching (local or preferably international) and bring them upto international standards.. but one thing, our sri lankan body structure is not tailor made for athletics, swimming etc.. so to compete with international standard athletes is hard..

Ravi Seneviratne Wednesday, 15 August 2012 09:37 AM

All these excuses are rubbish , why could all these sports personnals come out with it before they went to UK,? if they have done so , they would have been in Colombo watching the games on TV,This comments itself proves that they just wanted to take part.

MoFar Wednesday, 15 August 2012 09:54 AM

How many did get return to the country out of 30?

RamUk Wednesday, 15 August 2012 09:55 AM

every one like to participate

lanka Wednesday, 15 August 2012 10:17 AM

Do not give lame excuses about coach not been there. The coach does not get the medal. Get back and do proper training no excuses!

Bagalawathie Wednesday, 15 August 2012 10:23 AM

Didn't SL win a gold medal for sending the biggest number of officials for the Olympics ?. Miracle of Asia.

Gamini Wednesday, 15 August 2012 10:31 AM

Mr.Minister of Sports whats your response ? You'd better have a good one.

ChamaraJ Wednesday, 15 August 2012 10:33 AM

Spot-on sir !!!!

dinesh withanage Wednesday, 15 August 2012 10:35 AM

it is high time of treating all sport events equally in order to develop the sports. few elite forces of rich people gamble to undermine the choice of the majority. who realizes this?

Bitter Truth Wednesday, 15 August 2012 10:43 AM

302 events in 26 types of sports. Do all these sports require the kind of body structure we are talking about? I don’t think so, we have not planned. We do not know our positives and negatives. Come on we need sensible people on decision making positions. We are clearly miles behind in this.

Dilip Wednesday, 15 August 2012 09:20 AM

This what happened when you have 5 Cooks (athletes) and 30 Chefs (officials)..

patana Wednesday, 15 August 2012 12:35 PM

Other countries are happy when their sportsmen return with medals. We are happy as long as they return.

loki Wednesday, 15 August 2012 12:59 PM

So if coaches were there we will get 7 golds .. hik hik hik....

citizen1 Wednesday, 15 August 2012 01:07 PM

Joy-rding at the expense of the ciizens.

peeda mossa Wednesday, 15 August 2012 01:30 PM

Since there is no hope of winning medals without coaches, shall we send officials only, hereafter. After all, these games have been mere picnics to the ministry officials and some other lucky people.

sach Thursday, 16 August 2012 03:29 AM

the point in the article is sending our sportsteam with 30 officials but without a much needy coach. Got it?

wimale Thursday, 16 August 2012 03:34 AM

Of course they wanted to take part. It is an honour to represent your county at an international event sports or any other. Don't belittle their efforts. If teh Srilankan cricket coach was barred from accompanying the cricket team to tournaments would you have the same views??

sach Thursday, 16 August 2012 03:51 AM

if u put more time to read news in SL, you will notice they have asked for their coaches before they go. But were denied.

Carl Thursday, 16 August 2012 04:59 AM

Now get the Officials ready for the next Olympics at Rio.

Olympic Fan

kodikara Thursday, 16 August 2012 07:52 AM

As the public, how come we are so timid, idiotic and helpless, while the corrupted officials are wasting public money. This is why SL is and will never develop !!

Bawa Thursday, 16 August 2012 08:36 AM

NEED BETTER AND CONTINOUS TRAINING SURE WE CAN GET SOME MEDALS

Minister Wednesday, 15 August 2012 08:08 AM

Sports Minister can, now itself, get ready to send at least 60 officers to Rio de Janiro in 2016. He need not worry about the number of athletes!

Nodrogrog Wednesday, 15 August 2012 07:35 AM

What a sad and sorry situation. Already the sports minister has accused the sportsmen of lying but he has not said why so many officials had to accompany the team. This is the kind of treatment that has demotivated our sportsmen over the years.

Siri Wednesday, 15 August 2012 07:35 AM

it is Gov responsibility to recover expences officials who are not eligable to go(I am sure this will not happen in SL)

Dee Wednesday, 15 August 2012 07:27 AM

Where is the rest of the 'Jing Bang' ? are they at the afterparty?

RamUk Wednesday, 15 August 2012 07:50 AM

how come when MR comes to london with plane load of people

ajith Wednesday, 15 August 2012 07:44 AM

Ado !! Kauda ara ganiwa kanna hadana eka? Oge walathacama perenawa!!!

RamUk Wednesday, 15 August 2012 07:57 AM

why marking me (-) dont you like the fact team GB spend lot in sport or is SL inability physically and financially back the guys

Wasantha Wednesday, 15 August 2012 07:50 AM

Where's are those 31 officials who went with them? Did they go missing in UK?

IBNUABOO Wednesday, 15 August 2012 08:04 AM

this is very srprise nobody was missing from there

Prasannajit Wednesday, 15 August 2012 07:47 AM

No point commenting. This had happened in the past and will be happening in the future as well. If you want to attend an international meet dont be a sportsman, be an official.

leda Wednesday, 15 August 2012 08:07 AM

Dear Sport Minister, 07 Athletes, 30 Official, But no coach,
what is your comment.

sportment

RamUk Wednesday, 15 August 2012 07:23 AM

every medal for Team GB cost 4m pounds can some one tell me how much govt invested in the sports to get a medal. there is a differance in it?

Mervin Wednesday, 15 August 2012 08:05 AM

LOL. This is typical MR type delegation - 7 athletes; 30 officials (probably the officials were dispatched to carry and bring the Gold medals in case if we had won any)

saranga Wednesday, 15 August 2012 07:57 AM

In Australia it cost $10million per medal but SL is no where near in terms of Aus economic strength, but it's disgusting know that 30officials went with them. We really need the independent civil service commission which was killed by UNP and UPFA in 1972 and 1978.

saranga Wednesday, 15 August 2012 07:57 AM

In Australia it cost $million per medal but SL is no where near in terms of Aus economic strength, but it's disgusting know that 30officials went with them. We really need the independent civil service commission which was killed by UNP and UPFA in 1972 and 1978.

ChamaraJ Wednesday, 15 August 2012 08:18 AM

Really??if so, its just like "Natanda Bedi Minihata Polowa Edai" of course the coaches would have been able to offer some last minute advise....but, come on people, non of them could go beyond the initial round.....except for the Badminton Player.......and now they are blaming it on the coaches....did you see that female athlete who did the 400m hurdles...she was dead last and she was trained in America.....if our Athletes are going perform at that level, they need to be groomed from school level and there needs to be funding.... lots of it... sincerely hope I could see Sri Lanka winning a Gold Medal in my lifetime !!!!! but, with Athletes like this, I guess not.

HAKEEM Wednesday, 15 August 2012 08:22 AM

Sour Grapes?

pasha Wednesday, 15 August 2012 08:43 AM

Person who does not know to dance says the stage not fit

Dee Wednesday, 15 August 2012 08:45 AM

A comment with some intellect!

IBNUABOO Wednesday, 15 August 2012 08:51 AM

time to time some who are nothing tobe used for anything have opportunities to enjoy in foriegn countries in state expense

patana Wednesday, 15 August 2012 08:53 AM

There is always an excuse.

hmm Wednesday, 15 August 2012 09:29 AM

they have set up a handball team and are touring Italy.. (like in the film 'Machan'

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Absence of coaches hinders better show in London

Comments - 44

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