President Maithripala Sirisena says the aim of the Government is to place Sri Lanka in a prominent position in the field of sports by providing essential human and physical resources to every institution related to the sport field under the Government’s sport policy.
He made these remarks participating in a ceremony held at the Temple Trees yesterday (26) to felicitate the medal winners who represented Sri Lanka at the South Asian Games, 2016.
During the felicitation ceremony cash awards amounting to more than Rs. 600 Lakhs were presented to the medal winners and their coaches and the President launched the official website of the “Presidential Sports Awards Ceremony, 2015.”
President Sirisena also presented awards for the gold medal winners at the 12th South Asian Games, the President Media Unit said.
Further expressing his views the President said that before naming participants for sporting events, authorities should look into the difficulties faced by them. “If we could do a pre-assessment regarding the difficulties faced by sportsmen and women, we would be able to win more medals than the present victories, he further said”.
The President pointed out that elements like selfishness, dividing into groups, tug-of-war prevailing in the fields of the politics, media and art are main obstacles for the victories and he further said that if we want to move forward as a country we should eliminate disharmony among ourselves and unite as a one nation.
The President emphasized the importance of equitable distributions of benefits to the villages and towns.
The President said that the Government and the people should extend their honour to the sportsmen and women who won the medals amidst many difficulties.
Prime Minister Ranil Wickremasinghe, Ministers Dayasiri Jayasekara, Ravi Karunanayake, Sagala Rathnayake, Deputy Minister H.M.M Haris, Sport Ministers of Local Governments, Secretary to the President, P.B Abeykhoon, Ministry Secretaries, Sports instructors, parents of the medal winners and many others participated at this occasion.
