Acting as advisor to the first ever Sri Lankan team to participate in Asian Winter Games, Damjan Pintar coordinated two training camps for the young athletes – in August and December 2016.
In the summer Czech coach Jiri Danicek worked individually with Lukas Hettiaratchi – a young Sri Lankan cross country skier – for over 10 days in the Planica indoor hall guaranteeing perfect snow conditions on improving his cross country technique and physical training. HIT Alpinea company from Kranjska Gora secured optimal accommodation and nutrition during his stay.
Following the arrangements made by Damjan Pintar, Lukas Hettiaratchi has also attend an alpine skiing training camp in New Zeland with Slovenian coach Florjan Jagodic working also with American skiers.
Between December 11th and 25th a team of five athletes: Gardiner Seshan (alpine skiing), Mathugala Shehan and De Silva Sajjev (cross country skiing) Hettiaratchi Lukas (cross country skiing), Uspuh Azquiya (snowboarding) visited Slovenia to master their skills and learn new techniques.
The athletes spent most of their, co-sponsored by SporTour stay in the Olympic Training Centre Rogla with coaches: Jan Pintar (alpine skiing), Jiri Daniček (cross country skiing) and Gorazd Polanec (snowboarding) responsible for their preparations schedule.
Apart from the physical training, the athletes met also some of the Slovenian Olympic medallists from Beijing and Rio who shared their experiences with them and offered some mental training advice. With great support from Patra Majdilč, Olympic medallist from Vancouver, all the athletes came back home fully equipped with new competition gear.
To read more, please follow the links: Summer camp Winter camp
