People and Events

Help

S. M.D. Kalum Lasantha Perera, 17, of Navagampura, Wellampitiya is suffering from advanced chronic kidney failure. He needs urgent surgery to save his life. His parents are unable to meet the cost. The Wellawatta West Lions Club has set up a fund at the Hatton National Bank, Grandpass Branch as Savings Account No. A/C 021 3887011. Please give your mite towards Kalum's recovery.

Twenty-one- year-old H.G. Indika Presanna Kumara of Poddela is suffering from advanced chronic kidney failure. As his family is unable to meet the expenses they seek donations. Any donation can be contributed to the Commercial Bank ,Galle branch, A/C 8050068701.

Player, coach and umpire

By Roshan Peiris

The smart woman wearing a red helmet and riding a blue motor cycle is Nimal Ettipola, a national hockey player, national coach, and national umpire.

Her father, she said, "was known as the father of hockey players in this country, so it is in my genes. I started playing hockey from the age of sixteen." She has played hockey since 1962 and from 1968 to 1979 was a member of the Sri Lanka women's hockey pool.

Nimal has the distinction of introducing the game to Visakha Vidyalaya, her old school. From 1980 she has been the coach at Sujatha Vidyalaya and was Sri Lanka's school coach from 1986.

She is now also the national umpire for women's hockey which position she has held since 1989.

Hockey, Nimal said, is the second fastest game, the first being basket ball.

"Hockey was first played on a grass court and now is played on a synthetic court called astro turf. You can find one near the Race Course. The ball really travels fast on the synthetic court. I say proudly that it is much faster than any other game be it cricket, tennis, badminton, etc.," Nimal adds.

Next month she heads for Singapore with the Sri Lanka hockey schools team as coach where they will participates in the 'Singapore Cricket Club International Tournament.'

In 1995, she went to Madras with the Sri Lanka national team as manager. Sri Lanka won two matches of the three played.

In 1996, she was Sri Lanka's team coach to the 'International hockey tournament' in Bangkok where Sri Lanka came fourth among the eight countries.

In 1997, she was also umpire at the 'Asian Hockey Federation Cup in Singapore'.

As an umpire, Nimal said, "I guide and control the matches."

As coach Nimal is in charge of physical training. "I know it sounds funny and difficult to imagine but we do have practices in road running," she smiles.

"I also teach the teams the rules of the game,"she said.

"There are so many that it is difficult to enumerate them. I also teach and coach the teams in the different approaches to the game," she said.

Her son Nilupa now twenty five played for the Sri Lanka schools team. Her husband Tissa, a businessman is also an international hockey player. It is a closely knit hockey playing family, she said.

Nimal's hobbies are strangely stamp collecting, a sedate hobby, and listening to Sinhala songs sung by Mohideen Baig and Rukmani Devi.

More Plus

Return to the Plus Contents