Immediate past president of the National Olympic Committee (NOC) Hemasiri Fernando and long-time secretary general of the Olympic body were felicitated at a Special General Meeting of the NOC held on Saturday.
Fernando headed the August assembly for 21 years from 1997 to 2018 while Pinnawela held the position of secretary general of the NOC for 14 years from 1983 to 1997.
Both these officials were bestowed with honorary life memberships and felicitation plaques which was handed over to them by NOC president Suresh Subramaniam and its secretary general Maxwell de Silva at Olympic House.
Pinnawela is the secretary of the Amateur Athletic Association of Sri Lanka.
The NOC also had named the Olympic House auditorium, after Hemasiri Fernando as a mark of respect and to honour his contribution to the movement by calling it the ‘Hemasiri Fernando Auditorium’.
Upon taking over as President of the NOC in 1997, Fernando was instrumental in moving the NOC office to the more spacious Sugathadasa Stadium office from an office room at the Racecourse where the ‘Olympic House’ dream was hatched.
The four storeyed ‘Olympic House’ became a reality on September 23, 2008 amidst a huge gathering of dignitaries.
Fernando is the immediate past president of the National Olympic Committee (NOC)/Commonwealth Games Association (CGA) of Sri Lanka and also the honorary Vice President, Olympic Council of Asia (OCA) - (since July 2011) and Regional Vice President (Asia), Commonwealth Games Federation (CGF) - (since 2007).
Among the other important decisions that were passed the addition of two new members to its executive committee - the Surfing Federation of Sri Lanka and National Association for Climbing and Mountaineering in Sri Lanka while Ski and Snowboard Association was granted Associated membership without voting rights.
NOC chief Subramaniam said on the strength of the pillars that his predecessor Hemasiri Fernando had built, it was easy for him draw up his strong future plan that he formulated with his present Executive Committee.
“Noteworthy among them are the forming of the high performance unit under the capable hands of vice president Asanga Seneviratne and the Sexual Harassment Prevention resolution that was launched under the guidance of NOC Women’s Committee Chairperson Niloo Jayatilake,” he said.
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