Veteran Olympians Hemasiri Fernando and Prema Pinnawela felicitated at NOC SL SGM

Immediate past president of the National Olympic Committee Hemasiri Fernando who headed the august assembly for 21 years from 1997 to 2018 and veteran Olympian Prema Pinnawela who held the position of Secretary General of the National Olympic Committee for 14 long years from 1983 to 1997 was felicitated at NOC SL’s Special General Meeting held at its headquarters recently.

Both these Olympians were heralded with honorary life memberships and felicitation plaques to this effect were handed over to Pinnawela from NOC SL by President Suresh Subramaniam and its Secretary General Maxwell de Silva, during the general meeting.

At present, Pinnawela is the present secretary of the Amateur Athletic Association of Sri Lanka.

Prior to that, the NOC SL 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 NOCSL in 1997, Hemasiri Fernando also held many important portfolios in the government sector and was instrumental in moving the NOC office to the more spacious Sugathadasa Stadium office from an office room at the Race Course where the ‘Olympic House’ dream was hatched.

The real four-storied Olympic House became a reality on 23 September 2008 amidst a huge gathering of dignitaries.

At present 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 were the addition of two new members to its executive committee in Surfing Federation of Sri Lanka and National Association for Climbing and Mountaineering in Sri Lanka while Ski and Snow Board Association was granted Associated membership without voting rights.

Speaking in his capacity of the President NOC SL Subramaniam said, “Though the period under purview of 2017 he was not familiar with what transpired at that time, he said that on the strength of the pillars that his predecessor Hemasiri Fernando had built, it was easy for him to draw up his strong future plan that is 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 SL Women’s Committee Chairperson Niloo Jayatilake.”