All Sri Lankans should be proud, of our Lads and Lasses as they are doing the Country proud at the SAF GAMES! Are we 2nd or 3rd? According to GOLD's, we're third?
Medals Table
However there are a few droplets of "Gob" that cant stop hitting the "Milk Pot" as would be expressed in Local Terms. What am I talking abt?
1. Andrew Abeysinghe. There is a lot of controversy regarding this, and myself do not have any links to the Swimming Arena in SL, therefore cant comment on who is right or not.
BUT, I certainly can give you my opinion on how he's being treated. The lad after winning two gold's, gets cat called by the affected parents "Go America, Cmon America", while taking his mark on what ever that thingy they take their mark on, and during the ceremony. This is outright BULL!, and proves how Pathetic we Sri Lankans are. After he's selected to represent Sri Lanka, he is "Sri Lankan". No matter what, whether in disgust, either protest outside or be silent while the boy is taking his mark, not for anything but he's trying to win Sri Lanka a GOLD!
Thats all I'm going to spend on Andrew for now. Further readings.
Poncha taken by surprise by Abeysinghe
VIC's Blog Post that Spiked a bit of controversy
2. A potential Gold Medalist, Sri Lankan mind you, beaten by 6 men, broken limbs and in hospital. He's even is the Marathon scheduled for Monday. So is this the epitome of someone's jealousy towards some others achievements? I don't know the entire story behind this but it's truly saddening to see things like this happen here.
Daily Mirror (Need Registration)
3. Also I read that the Games have been marred by Biased Judging of Officials in the Boxing Arena, giving Pakistan the upper hand. Why couldn't this be avoided, is beyond my comprehension?
Daily News - Winning silver is good as gold - Harsha, Indika
Anyways, please do share your opinions and comments. I don't mean to be a dampener, but these are the Facts behind the SAF GAMES.
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2 comments:
Hey Max, I was asking my self the same question, "What happened to us this time?". I remember when the games hit Colombo last time in 91, I was just a teenager and how much we enjoyed our victory. First few days of the games we lead the medal table, and it was on the last few days India passed us. (Thanks to some additional medal events by weight lifting organizers, they said those days). I remembe how we cherished Julian Bowling and Deepika Chanmugam winning golds for SL (Shhhh!... I better keep my mouth shut. I'm not lined to SL swimming arena)
Actually, I thought of making a blog post, but you beat me on that :-)
Are we a weak nation in sports than in 91? Those days, south asia was not a big deal for us, but aiming at Asian Games and Olympics. But, this time? Being the host nation? Is this good enough?
Well, Athletics events are yet to finish so we have some hope there.
Woow, about Andrew! Well, people proudly say "Arthur C Clerk is a Sri Lankan" knowing both his parents are English, and he spent best time of his childhood and early youth in England. (For Wikipedia, he's still British). But for some people to accept Andrew as a Sri Lankan, it's bit difficult it seems. Double standards???
Important thing is, Andrew still wants to be a "Sri Lankan" and why don't we just encourage him? I think, alegations against Andrew is just another version of "racism". Nothing else.
Below is one paragraph from Daily News sports page. I know, some "great journalists" will say, Daily News is rubish. But, it's still a well accepted national daily in Sri Lanka.
Quote:
In Sri Lanka, swimming is altogether a different sport. More than the competitors, it’s their parents, mostly mothers who ‘swim’ in most cases. They don’t care about the country but what their sole aim is to get places for their children in the national team at any cost. Of course there are a handful of respectable parents who do not interfere and let their children come on merit.
But often we have selfish and vicious parents, mostly mothers who do rounds to get undue advantage for their children. It’s whose mothers who did not like justice being meted out for young Abeysinghe. The reason? Because their children will be left out of the team because the Abeysinghe has a better track record.
These are the parents who were so cruel and selfish to turn hooligans at the swimming venue. When Abeysinghe was swimming for gold, they hooted at him and shouted ‘Come on America!’. The way these parents behaved in an utterly disgraceful way was a shame for the host nation.
First they went to the extreme of writing to officials in India and Pakistan, in a desperate attempt to stop Abeysinghe from competing. Then when their attempts were unsuccessful, they tried to mentally upset the little boy. What a shame!
Quote ends
Firstly big thank you to my GF, who pointed out that some of the links were broken. Yup, I've gotten her to edit me, he he.. or rather Persuaded her to change her home page to yours truly. She has to go through a lot, listening to my ramblings and most of my opinions are streamlined and sometimes changed (yes, sometimes I'm wrong too) after lengthy discussions/arguments.
Well, I'm glad you got my point mate! This is what I actually started with in mind, but after reading the post a 2nd time, I wasn't sure, whether my point was conveyed.
It's not to make a big heap about one or two people, but what has happened to our beloved Motherland. The "Sportyness" of our Atheletes, the "Standards", "Organising of the Event" leaves much to think about.
Now I dont mean to go all out against the Swimmers, they have well and trully done the country proud. Just that watching the Events, you compare the Records set, the SLR record is way better than the Games Record. BUt still we find many Sri Lankans finding it difficult to come close to any of them. Somebody with some Sporting Sense please explain this to me. (I honestly don't know the ins and outs, therefore would humbly accept anybody's wisodm.)
Lastly "Congratulations to the SL Foot Ball Team in ousting the Indians!!" It was a classic finish, that kept you at the edge of your seat!
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