A high-level delegation, led by Ajith Nivard Cabraal, joint chairman of the Organising Committee in Hambantota, and which also included Hemasiri Fernando, chairman of the National Olympic Committee of Sri Lanka (NOCSL), have held talks with the Olympic Council of Asia (OCA) President Sheikh Ahmad Al-Fahad Al-Sabah to reassure him that they are capable of hosting the event.

The OCA had threatened to move the Games, awarded to Hambantota in June 2012, because of lack of progress in organising the event.

Doha had been widely tipped to step in as a replacement. 

But Sheikh Ahmad now appears to have accepted assurances from the Sri Lankan delegation, which also included Maxwell de Silva, secretary general of the NOCSL, and Government officials Anura Jayawickrema and Prema Pinnawala.

At the meeting held at the OCA's headquarters in Kuwait City, Cabraal, the head of the Central Bank of Sri Lanka, promised that the country's President Mahinda Rajapaksa was fully behind the event.
 Ajith Nivard Cabraal, head of the Organising Committee for the Asian Youth Games in Sri Lanka, meets OCA President Sheikh Ahmad. Al-Fahad Al-Sabah at a meeting where they reassured him that they could organise the event ©National Olympic Committee of Sri Lanka

Under new proposals, events will be split between Hambantota and Sri Lankan capital Colombo with full details, including which sports will be contested, due to be finalised at the OCA General Assembly in Incheon on September 20. 

A new committee has been set up under Palitha Fernando, President of the Athletics Association of Sri Lanka, to coordinate the selection of venues and training centres to be used for the Games. 

A deadline of next summer has been set so that final preparations can be made for the Games, which are due to take place in August 2017.