Sri Lanka's junior sailing team, consisting of 11 members, competed in the third Langkawi Youth Sailing Championship 2024 in Malaysia from June 19 to June 23. The team included nine students from Royal College, one student from S. Thomas’ College, Mount Lavinia, and one student from Ladies College. They competed in various categories, including Optimist Class, ILCA 4, ILCA 6, and ILCA 7. The championship featured over 200 sailors from Malaysia, Singapore, Indonesia, Thailand, India, Cambodia, Myanmar, and Hong-Kong. The Sri Lanka junior sailing team trained hard for the championship and aimed to bring back glory to Sri Lanka [70df6c7d].
In addition to the sailing team, Sri Lanka's junior athletes also made their mark in the Asia Triathlon Junior Cup. Isaac Tan and Teo Sze Hui were crowned national men's and women's junior champions at the event. Isaac finished 19th out of 72 competitors with a time of one hour and 55 seconds, earning him the national men's junior champion title. Sze Hui achieved a top-10 finish in the women's event, securing ninth place with a time of 1:11:53. Both Isaac and Sze Hui have aspirations of representing Malaysia in future competitions, including the Asian Championships and the SEA Games. The men's and women's champions of the Asia Triathlon Junior Cup were Wong Ka Ho from Hong Kong and Kira Ellis from the Philippines, respectively. Ka Ho and Kira have their sights set on qualifying for the 2028 Olympics in Los Angeles. The event also crowned Ng Han Yang and Emily Chen as the national Under-15 champions in the men's and women's categories [af969de8].
Husband and wife team Damien Heather and Ana File-Heather from the Cook Islands secured a podium finish at the Gorge Downwind Champs in the United States. They competed in the Outrigger Canoe 2 category and came second in their age group and third overall. The Gorge Downwind Champs is a week-long festival of downwind paddling held annually in the Columbia River Gorge. This year, over 750 paddlers participated in the event, making it the largest all-downwind paddle race in the world. The couple faced the challenge of securing a canoe but were fortunate to have made contacts as Cook Islands' canoe dealers. They plan to participate in more international paddling races and are grateful for the support of the paddling community in Rarotonga [65b5baaf].
The U.S. Embassy in Colombo has welcomed former NBA and WNBA players Stephen Howard and Astou Ndiaye as U.S. Sports Envoys to Sri Lanka. They conducted a weeklong basketball program called Hoops for Hope: Bridging Borders through Basketball, which included basketball clinics, exhibition matches, and leadership sessions for youth aged 14-18. The program aimed to promote leadership development, community building, equality, and peace through sports. Howard and Ndiaye collaborated with Sri Lankan schoolchildren on a community service project, further fostering the spirit of unity and cooperation. The U.S. Embassy believes that sports can be a powerful tool in promoting peace and unity [6f8360de].
Furthermore, Sri Lanka's Ambassador to the US, Mahinda Samarasinghe, hosted a dialogue between State Minister of Technology Kanaka Herath and members of the Sri Lankan community from the field of information technology (IT), entrepreneurs, and professionals residing in the US. The meeting aimed to encourage investment in IT-based industries in Sri Lanka and share the vision and progress towards developing the digital economy of Sri Lanka. State Minister Herath made a detailed presentation on new initiatives in the digital development drive in Sri Lanka, outlining the six key pillars of Sri Lanka's policy and welcoming investment, cooperation, and support from Sri Lankans in the United States. The participants expressed their ideas and proposals during a question and answer session, and the Ambassador expressed hope that the State Minister and his office would follow up on the various ideas and proposals shared during the discussion to streamline the digital transformation in Sri Lanka. The participants were also briefed on the planned global summit on digital development in June 2024 under the 'DIGIECON 2030' initiative. This initiative aims to accelerate Sri Lanka's digital transformation and position the country as a hub for digital innovation and technology [2d3c0766].