If boys can do it why can’t we?
Cheers, screams and applause, a sea of colour, waving flags – the Sports Ministry grounds was a happy place on International Women’s Day, as past students from five of Colombo’s leading girls’ schools gathered to enjoy the first ever Girl Power Inter-School Old Girls Sportsmeet.
Stiff competition and a lot of fun too. Pix by Indika Handuwala
Past students from Holy Family Convent, Bambalapitiya, CMS Ladies’ College, Methodist College, Musaeus College, St Paul’s Milagiriya and Visakha Vidyalaya were present along with a few present students to represent their school at the meet organised by Flash Point, an event management company. The inspiration came from the Big Match fever that boys of leading schools so look forward to come March.
“Only men have the chance to enjoy themselves in the events like their big matches – women do not have such occasions so we thought it would be a good idea to organize such an event and it was warmly welcomed by the participants,” said Nirupa Karunaratne, a partner of the event management company responsible for Girl Power.
44 events in all were held in the age groups of under 30, 40, 50, 60, over 60 and open events. There was stiff competition and friendly rivalry as events such as the TAG cycle relay, wheel relay, netball relay, swapping relay, hoop relay and rescue relay were worked off. Past students, some who had left school all of 30 years ago were there in their numbers, cheering lustily, waving their school flags and even rapping to cheer their athletes on.
Finally it was Ladies’ College that won the “Girl Power invitational Inter-School old girls challenge trophy” with Holy Family Convent and Musaeus College in second and third place. Musaeus had earlier won the cycle race which took place the previous weekend.
Most of the old girls the Sunday Times spoke to said that they were there to support the charity programme. Entrance tickets cost around Rs 500 to 1000 and all proceeds would go to purchase water purification filters to curb the incidence of Chronic Kidney Disorder in the North Central Province.
