Western Province has been victorious in the National Sports Festival (NSF) earlier known as Inter-Provincial sports meet, ever since it was inaugurated in 1972.

Western Province continued to dominate the rest of the seven provinces this year too when they comfortably won with 238 points. The 31st NSF ended with a beautiful closing ceremony on Saturday at the Bernard Aluvihare ground in Matale.

North Western (153) and Central (142) were placed second and third respectively while Southern (111) were fourth.

There was a solitary meet record set on Saturday when NWP’s R. A. K. P. Maduwanthi jumped 1.71m in the women’s high jump final to improve on her own record of 1.70m established in 2003.

Youth Affairs and Sports Minister Jeevan Kumaratunga was the chief guest. Minister of Provincial Councils and Local Government Janaka Bandara Tennakoon and Central Province Chief Minister Rohana Dissanayake also took part in the closing ceremony.