Horse Racing

Suranjith Premadasa, the President of the Equestrian Association who is keen in promoting horse racing here said that horse racing got the opportunity to go down south mainly because of the Carlton Super Cross which commenced two years ago. The people of the province were highly convinced and are looking forward to watch races once again. This year around 35 horses are expected to compete here and he thanked the owners for their entry in support of this event.



Mountain Biking

Mountain biking is a sport that caught well with the rural folk in Sri Lanka, said Amal Suriyage, President of the Mountain Biking Association. He thanked the Tharunyata Hetak Foundation headed by Namal Rajapaksa who paved the way for his Association to take this sport to the Southern Province through this Carlton Super Cross in the year 2007.

This novel sport was taken up by the youth of this area seriously as we also had the fullest co-operation of the Education Ministry to conduct seminars and workshops to educate the youngsters about the sport.

He said that in the previous years the participation was very high and expect nearly 1,000 competitors at this event. The organisers of this event hope to conduct events for boys and girls under 10, 13, 16 and 19 open and the veteran event on a 2 km track laid specially for mountain biking. He said that the under 10 event will be conducted as a mixed event for boys and girls.

He also added the entry coupons will be published in national newspapers could be used to send in their entries. Already the schools of the Southern Province have been informed about the entries and requests school authorities to give the organisers a helping hand by keeping the participants informed about the event.


4 x 4 challenge
Navin Premaratne explained the programme for the 4 x 4 challenge events planned for jeeps. This event is a thrilling one for participants as well as for spectators.

Previous years we saw the enthusiasm of everyone in the area, as such we decided to include a special event for drivers engaged in safari tours in Yala and Uda Walawa.

The organisers hope to conduct three events for safari, standard and extreme drivers. He also said that these events will be conducted simultaneously to give the spectators the fullest enjoyment through this event.


Windsurfing
Thusal Gunewardene who heads the water sports segment said that he hopes to conduct three events. He said though they planned to conduct water skiing on Tissa tank, due to unavoidable circumstances could not do the same. This year we will definitely go ahead with the event in addition to wind surfing, said Thusal. Devaka Seneviratna, the rower from Colombo Rowing Club said that they too hope to conduct three events including an event for ladies.



The Marathon

On March 1st, a 16 K.M. Marathon will be taken in place at Thissamaharama.