Colombo, Sri Lanka, September 7, 2025: A total of 17 participants featured in the Sri Lanka Asian Youth Reporter Project in Colombo on Sunday, September 7.
Sri Lanka is the eight stop in the OCA’s ‘Asian Games for All’ campaign held in collaboration with the Aichi-Nagoya Asian Games Organising Committee to promote the showpiece from September 19 to October 4, 2026.
The 17 participants – seven male and 10 female – were welcomed to the workshop by Lal Wickrematunge, General Manager of National Olympic Committee of Sri Lanka, before Jeans Zhou Jian, OCA Director Media and Broadcast, gave an overview of the programme.
The workshop was then conducted by Alvin Sallay, Assistant Editor of OCA Media.
“The first ever Asian Youth Reporter project done by the OCA was held in Sri Lanka, back in 2012 and I was the instructor. We picked one young guy and he joined our media team at the 2013 Asian Youth Games, Nanjing 2013. It is great to be back in Sri Lanka again,” said Jeans Zhou.
In 2012, a young schoolboy from Dharmaraja College in Kandy – Sashin Karunaratne – wrote the winning essay. On this occasion, the winner will be announced on Monday, during the Sri Lanka Asian Games Fun Run.
He or she will join four other previous winners in Aichi-Nagoya – Bhutan’s Meera Regmi, Tajikistan’s Rumayza Norova, Naranbat Serjmaa from Mongolia, and Zaynab Kawtharani from Lebanon.
“It is a good opportunity if you have set your mind on a career as a journalist – or even if you haven’t - to experience the Asian Games and be part of our media team. One thing is for certain, you will be kept busy,” Jeans Zhou told the budding journalists.
The OCA hopes to take 10 young writers from across Asia to the Aichi-Nagoya Games, continuing a tradition that goes back to 2012.
The 17 participants had been picked from a preliminary workshop and selection round held last week – attended by 31 aspiring youth reporters, four of them online.
“Good luck to all of you,” said NOC General Manager Wickrematunge, before the test began.
