Upali – Grit and valour personified
View(s):By Aubrey Kuruppu
Upali - Grit and valour personified
Upali Seneviratne, a fine cricketer, who played for St. Anthony’s College, Katugastota, in the mid 1950s, is not finished as yet. Over the last one-and-a-half decades, he has turned his attention to Track & Field and been very successful at Master’s Events.
Beginning in Indonesia in 1994, he won Bronze for Sri Lanka in the 4×100 metre relay. He won Silver in the Steeple Chase in Bangkok in 2004, and in between, he won Silver in the 4×400 metre relay and Bronze in the shorter relay in India.
Representing Sri Lanka Masters in Thailand in 2008, Seneviratne won Bronze in the Steeple Chase and Gold in the 4×100 metre relay. In 2010, in Malaysia, he won Bronze in the 4×400 metre relay.
He is still in fine fettle. At the recent, first ever, Masters’ All-Island Open Championship held in Matara, he turned out for Kegalle District in the 80-84 age group. He won 4 medals in an assortment of events — Gold in the High Jump and Silver in the 2 short sprints and in the Javelin throw. His versatility is admirable.
His next target is the Asian Masters’ Games in Malaysia in December this year. Seneviratne was a long-standing President of the Kegalle Cricket Club. He has also served in the Committees of the Board of Control for Cricket in Sri Lanka, now
Sri Lanka Cricket.
He was employed at the University of Peradeniya for many years and ended up as its Deputy Bursar. Seneviratne was also a Reserve Assistant Superintendent of Police. Shakespeare was not far off the mark: “Age has not withered, nor custom staled (his) infinite variety”.