Award presenting to Crysbro team
The primary goal of Crysbro Next Champ project is to find and develop bright young athletes, as well as to refine their potential to compete on a global level. Crysbro, with the support of National Olympic Committee of Sri Lanka (NOC SL), should be funded all aspects of these young athletes’ journey to the international sporting arena as the first phase of one of Sri Lanka’s most notable Scholarship Programs.
Crysbro Next Champ project not only recognizes and rewards young sporting talent from across the country, but also provides expert advice on topics such as optimal training methods and nutrition to budding athletes from a variety of sports disciplines. Crysbro’s already considerable social contribution as a crucial pillar of the country’s rural economy was to be bolstered by generating sporting possibilities and promoting the idea of being physically and mentally active, according to the project’s founding goal.
https://www.nextolympichope.com/
Crysbro launched an online portal “ Next Olympic Hope” in partnership with the NOC SL, which allows locals and athletic fans to financially sponsor rural athletes, school sports associations, sports clubs and chambers for the first time in the South Asia region. All donations collect through this portal will be disbursed in full to the organizations to which they were donated, a process that will be closely monitored and supervised by NOC SL.
“As a home-grown organization, the vision of Crysbro has always been to drive sustainable positive change in rural communities in Sri Lanka while supporting the economy. We are honoured to collaborate with the NOC SL to empower the national athletic ecosystem of the country. It is our sincere hope that these young athletes will undoubtedly go forth to bring much glory to our motherland at major international sporting events. While it is certainly rewarding to help these young athletes realize their aspirations of winning a medal at these games, our primary objective would be on supporting the journey and the holistic development of each athlete that involves a series of training sessions. We are very proud to develop the first-ever crowdfunding platform in the South Asian region to support Sri Lankan athletes. Our efforts were aimed to elevate the experiences of unprivileged athletes in different parts of the country with big dreams. Winning this award gives us more encouragement to support more athletes and collaborate with more stakeholders in the athlete ecosystem. I thank the Maya team for having faith in our vision and goal.” stated Crysbro Senior Marketing Manager Amores Sellar.
Discussing the award, CEO at Maya, Ian Iddamalgoda said, “As the agency that handled the digital marketing campaign the Crysbro Next Champ, we feel extremely proud and honoured to be recognized by the Sri Lanka Institute of Marketing. We are grateful to Crysbro for believing us in developing the Crysbro Next Champ project digital marketing strategy. Crysbro Next Champ was our very first SLIM Digis entry and the only entry to the awarding ceremony, having our digital marketing campaign recognized by the industry is a great encouragement to our team. We are proud to say the crowdfunding platform developed to support the national cause is one of its kind and the very first portal in the South Asia region developed for athlete ecosystem empowerment. I must thank my talented and dedicated team here at Maya, without their dedication this would not be a possibility. Our main aim of applying for this prestigious award was to bring another glory and empowerment to Sri Lankan athletes.”
The Sri Lanka Institute of Marketing (SLIM) organized the SLIM DIGIS 2.1 to identify and reward Sri Lanka’s best digital marketing efforts and talents. It is one of Sri Lanka’s most prestigious awards programs that recognize innovation and emerging talent in the digital marketing space.
The National Olympic Committee of Sri Lanka – Crysbro Next Champ held an Athletes’ Skills Development Programme – 2021 over the last four months on various topics for the Next Champ scholarship holders. This programme was created to enhance the junior athletes’ skills and prepare them for their international competitions.
The main objective of the program is to develop athletes’ skills, such as English language level, leadership, sport disciplines, and related knowledge. This would be an excellent opportunity for athletes to forge a more successful career in sports. All the selected Next Champ scholarship holders were part of the programme.
There were eight sessions in this programme consisting of basic English for athletes, leadership and teamwork, communication skills, preparation of resume, Olympism and Olympic values, competition preparation, basic English writing skills, and an interactive session with the global sport managers. These sessions were facilitated by Mr. Shehan Ambepitiya, Ms. Hansika Wijayagunasekara, Mr. Gobinath Sivarajah, Ms. Charuni Dissanayake, and Ms. Dinkey Bandara. The last session was led by the Global Sport Managers: Ms. Zaya Yadamdorj of Mongolia, Mr. Derrick Ntege of Uganda, Ms. Kaji Krichena of India, and Ms. Xueying Ma (Michelle) of China. They have shared their sport experience and inspirational stories with our junior athletes.
At the closing ceremony of the programme, the president of NOC Sri Lanka, Mr. Suresh Subramaniam emphasized that every athlete has to focus on what they want to achieve in their career, which is really important. At the end of the programme, the athletes who had fulfilled the requirements of the course were issued certificates.
Dhanushan, a junior golfer, commented on the programme “As an athlete, this programme changed me as a knowledgeable athlete who got to know a lot of necessary information about the sport. The effort that was put in by the NOC Sri Lanka is really fantastic. It was a pleasure to be a part of this skills development programme.”
“This is a great move by the National Olympic Committee of Sri Lanka when it comes to nurturing the NextGen athletes. We should all learn from them,” one of the global sport managers of this programme, Derrick Ntege, said.
One of the session facilitators, Shehan Ambepitiya who won three gold medals in a Youth Commonwealth Games described the programme that, “The young athletes we focus on through this program are national assets and the future of our country. This is not just another program that funds athletes to continue their sports, but a program that develops their skills and teaches them how to win in life in a competitive world. I do believe that thousands of youths in our country will be motivated to participate in and continue sports as a profession in the future.”
One of the global sport managers of the programme Zaya Yadamdorj, World Universiade Shooting Champion tweeted, “Great to see how NOC Sri Lanka contributes to the next generation of athletes through various effective programs. I really enjoyed the session. All the bests to the young athletes and the Sri Lanka NOC team.”
ජාතික මලල ක්රිඩා ශුරතාවලියට අදාල තවත් තරග කිහිපයක් අදියර වශයෙන් ඉදිරියේදී පැවැත්වීමට කටයුතු කරන බව ශ්රී ලංකා මලල ක්රිඩා සංගමය පවසයි. පවතින කොවිඩ් ව්යාප්තිය හේතුවෙන් ජාතික මලල ක්රිඩා ශුරතාවලිය පැවැත්වීමට හැකියාව ලැබුනේ එක් අදියරක් පමණි.
ටෝකියෝ ඔලිම්පික් තරගාවලියට පෙර මෙරට මලල ක්රිඩක ක්රිඩිකාවන්ට ඔලිම්පික් ක්රිඩා උළෙලට සුදුසුකම් ලැබීම සදහා මෙරට පැවැත්වෙන අවසන් මලල ක්රිඩා තරගාවලිය ජාතික ශුරතාවලියයි.
මේ දක්වා ඔලිම්පික් ක්රිඩා උළෙල සදහා මෙරට නියෝජනය කරමින් මලල ක්රිඩා ඉසව්වෙන් තරග වැදීම සදහා සුදුසුකම් ලබා සිටින්නේ නිලානී රත්නායක ක්රිඩිකාව පමණි. මේ අනුව තවත් ක්රිඩක-ක්රිඩිකාවන් කිහිපදෙනෙකුට අවස්ථාව උදාකිරීම සදහා ජාත්යන්තර තරගාවලි කිහිපයකට සහභාගි කරවීමට ද අවධානය යොමුවී ඇතැයි ශ්රී ලංකා මලල ක්රිඩා සංගමය පවසයි.
May 10, 2021: Sri Lanka’s leading poultry group Crysbro congratulates Artistic Gymnastics prodigy Milka Gehani De Silva who is ever so close to securing a highly coveted spot in the Tokyo Olympics. Should the International Gymnastics Federation confirms her position, Milka will go on to be the first artistic gymnast to represent the Sri Lanka at the Olympic Games. With several major wins at international sports games already under her belt, 18-year-old Milka is one among the pocket of young athletes handpicked, groomed and fostered under the revolutionary Crysbro NOCSL Next Champ initiative.
Hailing from Piliyandala, Milka commenced her school journey at Piliyandala Somaweera Chandrasiri College before entering Methodist College, Colombo. Having trained under former National Champion turned coach Ranjana Tharanga, her potential was apparent even at a young age. After several major wins, Milka then received an IOC-funded scholarship in 2019 to train in Japan, where she currently trains under the Olympic Solidarity Programme.
At the tender age of eight, Milka went on to become the Junior National Champion from 2011 to 2014, and competed to finish 6th in the Junior Commonwealth Games in 2016. She was also the National Champion in 2017 and 2018, and finished within the top 8 at the Asian Championship in Indonesia in 2018, becoming the first Sri Lankan to secure this spot. She also represented Sri Lanka at the Youth Olympic Games 2018, going on to set an Area record.
“We are ecstatic about Milka’s near-Olympic qualification and are confident that she will go on bring back an Olympic medal to our island nation once again should she qualify to compete in the most prestigious arena in the world of sports. This is clear testament to the effectiveness and power of the Next Champ initiative which aims to mould future torch bearers of Sri Lankan sports. Our primary focus has been to support the journey, strategy, and holistic development of each athlete which involves a combination of physical, mental, and psychological training. At the core of this initiative, will always remain a deep desire to elevate the experiences of many resilient Sri Lankan athletes with big dreams but very little financial backing to make them a reality,” stated Crysbro Senior Marketing Manager Amores Sellar.
As part of its ongoing mission to empower and support the aspirations of young people in Sri Lanka, the country’s premier poultry producer Crysbro recently awarded several scholarships to a select group of gifted young athletes selected under the NOCSL-Crysbro Next Champ Initiative. The Crysbro NOCSL Next Champ Initiative was launched with objective of empowering talented young athletes, and refining their potential to be winners in the international sporting arena.
The scholarships cover all transportation costs, nutrition, coaching fees, accommodation, logistics such as clothing, sports gear, and medical expenses necessary for the training, grooming and development of each selected athlete for two years with prospect of extension. The programme also gives athletes access to a combination of high-value tools and world-class mentors.
The ‘NOCSL-CRYSBRO Next Champ’ scholarship programme is phase-II of Crysbro’s ‘Next Champ’ scholarship programme, which up to date has groomed and supported the dreams of 130 young athletes from the under-privileged regions of the country. The initiative has also successfully produced a collection of athletes who secured gold and silver medals at the Nepal South Asian Games in 2019. The project’s founding vision sought to bolster Crysbro’s already significant social contribution as a key pillar of the country’s rural economy by creating sporting opportunities and promoting the message of staying physically and mentally active.
Established in 1972 with just 100 chicks and a deep desire to be a market leader in quality and innovation, Crysbro has emerged as Sri Lanka’s first and most sophisticated, fully vertically-integrated poultry producer. Its operations span grandparent and parent farms, hatcheries, broiler farms and feed mills. This thriving ‘Farm-to-Fork’ concept has formed the core of its success. In turn, it has yielded unprecedented benefit for numerous stakeholders including direct and indirect employees, outgrowers, domestic maize farmers and ultimately Sri Lankan consumers. These local links have immeasurably aided domestic production and led to a reduction in reliance on imported poultry products.
The selection committee of the Crysbro-National Olympic Committee of Sri Lanka’s “Next Olympic Champ” programme added the remaining eight nominees for the two-year scholarship programme conducted by the twosome.
The main aim of this programme is to help and sustain identified junior athletes of Sri Lanka and elevate them to be the next contenders of the top tier athletes and produce medal winners with eye for the third Olympic Medal in Lankan history.
Under this programme, each athlete gets an accumulated amount of Rs. 47,000.00 per month for their training.
Describing the present status of the programme one of the senior organisers said “Right now these young athletes are engaged only in training as a result of the prevailing Pandemic situation so keeping a tab on improvement is rather hypothetical, but only the competition gets back to normal it would be business as usual”.
The full list of names are: — Kanas Kumar Danushan – Golf [M], Amandhika Amarasinghe – Shooting [F], Madabavitage Tehan Sanchith Rayman – Boxing [M], Sudhdhathcharige Nethmi Nimthera – Boxing [F], H.H. Ravindu Sithum Jayasundara – Athletics [M], D.M.T.D. Tharushi Karunarathne – Athletics [F], W. Deshan Kapila Kumara – Weightlifting [M], R.L. Sachini Rajika Laksarani – Weightlifting [F], Pitiyage Don Senura Dilanka Silva – Table Tennis [M], A.D. Nadila Nethviru – Gymnastics [M], U.L. Tharinda Mandara Premakumara – Taekwondo [M], M. Senori Sasadara Fernando – Taekwondo [F], Kaluarachchige Sithuli Sodithya (F) – Athletics (High Jump), W.A. Ishara Samanmalee (F) – Athletics (Long Jump), T.O. Vinod Ariyawansa (M) – Athletics (400m Hurdles), M.D. Madushika Premarathna (F) – Weightlifting, Bimandi Bandara (F) – Table Tennis, H. Anju Minuwandana de Silva (M) – Weightlifting, D.A. Wenuka Kithnula (M) – Tennis, P. Nethmi Ahinsa Fernando (F) – Wrestling.
Co-opted scholarships
Seneka Gunaratne – Athletics [Co-opted scholarship (Only recognition for promotion)] [F]
Milka Gehani – Gymnastics [Co-opted scholarship (Only recognition for promotion)] F]
Source : https://olympic.lk/nocnews/352