Benedictines victorious at Colombo Zonal Athletic Championship 2022

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The track and field athletes of

St. Benedict’s College, Colombo put up a glorious all-round performance to bag the Colombo Zonal Athletic Championship with a lead of 36 points over St. Peter’s College. St. Benedict’s also won the overall Relay Championship and the Benedictine high jumper, Pasan Dilhara was awarded the Champion Athlete of the Meet for clearing over two metres in the Under-20 event. The meet was held at the Sugathadasa Stadium from August 23 to 26.

Benedictines dominated the middle and long distances, hurdle events and the relays, while faring well in the field events. In Under-20 800m and 1500m events, Tharindu Nimesh and Chirath Perera won the first and second places alternatively. The brilliant Sakuntha Balasuriya won both the Under-18 800m and 1500m easily and ran a superb final lap in the Under-18 4x400m relay to bring victory to the Benedictines in the last event of the meet.

Kalana Jayamanne won three events in the Under-16 category bagging gold medals in 400m, 800m, and 300m hurdles. In field events, Pasindu Nanayakkara won the double long jump and triple jump. Gold medals were also won by Steve Fernando in the Under-18 putt shot, by Yashen Theekshana in the Under-16 javelin throw and by Minol Imesh in the Under-20 400m hurdles.

It was indeed a brilliant team effort and all the hard work put in by the athletes, coaching and the support staff brought in the desired result for the Kotahena school. The dedicated and committed master in-charge and head coach, Nuwan Abeywickrama deserve all the credit for the team’s performances. He was ably supported by assistant coaches Ravindra Weerakkody, Ravi Jayakody, junior coach Luhith Lonath and physio Marin Amarasinghe. The team received unstinted backing from the youthful Sports Co-ordinator Rev. Bro. Dilshan Vimukthi.