All-Island Schools Kids Athletics Championship to promote fitness among children

Wednesday, 28 February 2018 00:00 - - {{hitsCtrl.values.hits}}

By Shannon Jayawardena

The All-Island Schools Kids Athletics Championship, organised by the Ministry of Education, will be held on 3 and 25 March with the goal of promoting overall fitness among little children through games.

The championship was first inaugurated involving team sports for grades three, four and five. The competition for children from grades three and four will be held on 3 March at the Kandy Bogambara Grounds and the competition for grade five students will be held on 25 March at Maris Stella College grounds in Negombo.

Education Ministry Sports Director Manjula Kariyawasam stated: “We want to give primary level kids the opportunity to step out of their classrooms and engage in active sports as well, in order to maintain and lead a happy life. We are not aiming at creating a competition but at the chance of creating fun and dynamic activities for all kids across the country.”

There are five enjoyable games planned for the grade three children including skipping, cross hopping and so on. There will be two additional games planned for the grades four and five youngsters while all participants will be granted certificates and gifts.

Children from all provinces in the country will be represented at this year’s championship, totalling 1,920 students from grade three, 2,016 students from grade four and 2,004 students from grade five.

Vice President of Corporate Affairs of main sponsor Nestle Lanka, Bandula Egodage, said: “Nestle Lanka, along with the Ministry of Education launched a special athletic program in 2015 with a total of 51,000 participants and the numbers rose to 175,000 participants in 2016 and 2017. Our objective is to basically promote physical and mental wellbeing and fitness.”

“We have been promoting school sports for decades and on top of that we decided to introduce a new campaign called Nestle Healthy Kids, which is a program which develops kid’s mental ability. As per the extension, the athletic championship will create overall aptness and welfare,” he added.

The format of the event is not of a race but more of a fun activity which will enable children to engage in sports at a very early stage in life. The activities include walking, running, spinning, and various methods of throwing and so on.

Nestle Lanka Corporate Affairs Vice President Bandula Egodage, Nestle Lanka Senior Manager Activation and Sponsorship Sajeewa Wickkramasinghe, Nestle Lanka Corporate Public Affairs Senior Manager Damitha Kulatunga, Ministry of Education Sports Director Manjula Kariyawasam, Ministry of Education Special Sports Consultant Sunil Jayaweera and Ministry of Education Project Officer Milroy Jayamanne were present at the news conference announcing the event.