Sri Lanka Athletics (SLA) Secretary Saman Kumara Gunawardene says that they have officially lodged a complaint with World Athletics (WA).

This was after two young local athletes were disqualified from their sprint event due to not arriving on time for the event at the 2025 Asian Youth Athletics Championships held in Saudi Arabia recently.

He said the same fate had befallen athletes from two other countries Oman and Korea, as well and he charged that negligence on the part of the organisers had resulted in the disqualification of the budding Lankan athletes.

The two athletes who were forced to undergo the bitter disappointment of failing to contest their events, were identified as Nidhuki Prarthana and Ayesha Sewwandi and they were scheduled to report for the women’s Under-18 1500 metre event. 

The coach of the two athletes who had their hopes shattered in the wake of their disqualification for no fault of theirs, has reportedly maintained that his products could have overcome the Chinese athlete who had ultimately won the event and he has bemoaned the loss of possible two medals for Sri Lanka.

Gunawardene dismissed claims that the athletes had been disbarred from competing due to shortcomings on the part of the manager, the three coaches and the female officer, which had accompanied the Lankan team to Saudi Arabia.

The SLA Secretary accepted that gross negligence on the part of the event organisers had sealed the fate of the two athletes and noted that it was unfair to lay the blame at the feet of the team officials for the two sprinters’ misfortune.

He stressed that in future SLA will think twice before sending athletes to compete in such events in lieu of what he described as controversial actions of organisers like in Saudi Arabia, where officials’ blundering comes at the cost of medal prospects for competing countries. 

(JK)