By Susil Premalal

The 97th National Athletics Championships conducted by the Athletics Association of Sri Lanka (AASL) is scheduled to be held from August 16 to 18 at the Sugathadasa Stadium in Colombo.

This meet will be a qualifying event for the IAAF World Athletics Championships to be held from September 27 to October 6 in Doha, Qatar and the 13th South Asian Games (SAG) to be held from December 1 to 10 in Kathmandu, Nepal.

The National Athletics Championships has also been named as the final athletics trial for the SAG.

Entries have been received from 633 athletes, including 486 Men and 147 Women.

Prema Pinnawela, Secretary of the AASL, has intervened and obtained US $5,000 from the Asian Athletics Association as there is no sponsor for the meet.