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Sports

You needn’t be eloquent to be good
By Elmo Perera
In the lighter side of the commonwealth issues former Sun journalist Elmo Perera has filed this interesting anecdote. At present I am busy working as a volunteer for the Sri Lankan team at the Commonwealth Games Village.

While on my line of duty I stumbled upon this story which I thought The Sunday Times readers might be interested in. The story is of 23 year old Kamal Sameera, a boxer from Seevali MMV, Ratnapura, now employed at Slimline as a Production Assistant., and 18 year old Richard Colin from Mauritius, a Security Officer who fought yesterday in the 57kg class.

Throughout the village, Resident Centres have been set up where athletes can go to relax in between their events, accessing the Net, send e-mail, read newspapers and watch the events on large-screen TVs etc

On Saturday last, Sameera and Richard, who didn't know each other and had very little English between them, were watching TV in one of the RCs. According to Sameera, Richard got up and left the place. Then Sameera noticed after sometime that a mobile phone was lying on the table. Surmising that this could be Richards’, Sameera walked the length and breadth of nearby streets trying to find a face among 6,000 athletes and various others who are there like me.

And in the end, he did. After a somewhat tiring conversation, accompanied by various hand-signals, it was established that this was Richards’ phone after all. They both came together to our Games office on Sunday to relate the story and pose for a picture. It would have been poetic justice if these two new-found friends had to face each other in the ring later on. But they were fighting in different classes.

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