School athletes who had almost nothing to look forward to came out of cold storage to contest the Relay Carnival conducted by Gateway College in conjunction with their 25th anniversary celebrations held at the Sugathadasa Stadium on Tuesday and some of them had very close finishes.
However, the conduct of this event was to seek a revival of athletics among school children who were without any competition for the past two years and the organisers said they were pleased with their participation and outcome.
Many of them displayed enthusiasm in this event and participated to their best limits.
Some races saw the winner having a wide gap at the finish which was also an indication of the improvement in standards that gave their respective schools pride of participation.
The chief organizer of this event was former Olympian hurdler Thilaka Jinadasa who said that no team was picked as the champions as this was to expose the athletes and give them the encouragement and confidence to come out and compete after a lapse of two years.