Star athletes Sadeepa and Shelinda to feature in ISAC 2020
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Athletics captains of Gateway College receiving the Best Athletes trophies to be awarded from Munchee General Manager, Janmesh Anthony
Several international athletes, including South Asian Games (SAG) gold medallist Sadeepa Henderson and Youth Olympian Shelinda Jansen, will be the cynosure of all eyes at the 20th International Schools’ Athletic Championship (ISAC 2020) to be held at the Sugathadasa Stadium from February 14 to 16.
Over 2,000 athletes from 23 international schools will be competing at ISAC 2020 hosted by Gateway College for the 11th time.
Sadeepa, 17, the youngest Sri Lankan athlete at SAG in Nepal, was a member of Sri Lanka’s gold medal winning 4 x 100m women’s relay team. She has a personal best of 11.96 seconds in the 100, 24.88 in the 200 and 5.84 metres in the long jump.
Shelinda, 19, bagged two bronze medals and a relay gold at the Junior South Asian Games in 2018 and has the distinction of qualifying for the Youth Olympic Games in Argentina in the 200 clocking 24.07 to be ranked ninth in the world.
She missed the Nepal Games because of an injury but is looking forward to compete at the Junior Asian Games in April.
Apart from these two star athletes from Gateway, there will be Santhush Weerasinghe and Dilmi Dahanayake from Lyceum, Wattala and Kavindu Bandara from Lyceum, Nugegoda.
“Over the years, ISAC has become an important event that not only breeds talented athletes but also showcases junior athletes of international repute. There is no doubt that the event is of national significance. Since the inaugural competition, the standard of athletics among international schools has gradually advanced to an extent where several athletes have now reached national and international levels, providing much required competition at the highest level. Athletes of the calibre of Shelinda Jansen, Sadeepa Henderson, Sachini Divyanjalee and Kavindu Bandara are a few such examples,” said Dr Harsha Alles, chairman of ISAC 2020 and the chairman of Gateway Group at a press conference on Thursday.
Paying a tribute to Gateway’s founder, late R.I.T. Alles, who initiated this event, he said: “This was a concept of Alles who thought that sport will play a major role in the international schools at a time when none of our schools were allowed to take part in zonal or provincial or national level. Our schools were confined to have their own meets by way of sports meets and it was limited to our own schools. ISAC was a major step forward. The standard was very low and the first ever meet was held at Shalika grounds. But the humble beginning that we had saw all participating schools joining in happily and their commitment for athletics made us believe that it would set the foundation for all other sports.”
ISAC has grown beyond expectations posing a challenge for the organizers. “It has become a gigantic event where approximately 2,000 athletes take part and there are 15,000 spectators. During the last few years what is remarkable is many athletes who have grown through ISAC have gone to represent upto international level. You will never find a schools athletic squad today without representation from the international schools. We have produced a few fantastic athletes. This particular meet is not second to any and is conducted at a level where national meets such as John Tarbat is being conducted,” Dr Alles said proudly thanking the multiple sponsors who have helped make this event a success.
The Principal Sponsors of ISAC 2020 are Pearson Edexcel and Ceylon Biscuits Ltd. The event is also supported by Home Lands, Hatton National Bank, DSI Samson Group, Airtel, How to Drive Driving School, Oxford University Press, Asiri Health, and Gateway Graduate School and Accolade by Gateway.
ISAC 2020 will be conducted in accordance with the TISSL (The International Schools of Sri Lanka) rules and regulations while coming under the International Athletics Federation Competition Rules. The championship is fully computerized with web-based entries and instantly accessible results and scores via the Internet through the ISAC webstie www.isaclk.com. Designed and developed by Gateway Consultancy Services, this website will provide all necessary information, including past meet records and full lists of competitors for this year’s meet.
The TISSL member schools competing in ISAC 2020 are Asian International School, Alethea International School, Belvoir College International, Burhani Serendib School, The British School in Colombo, Colombo International School, Colombo, Colombo International School, Kandy, Gateway College, Colombo, Gateway College, Kandy, Horizon College International, Ilma International School, Leeds International School, Lyceum International School, Nugegoda, Lyceum International School, Panadura, Lyceum International School, Ratnapura, Lyceum International School, Wattala, OKI International School, Royal Institute, Colombo, Stafford International School, Wycherley International School, Colombo, and Wycherley International School, Gampaha.
Rohini Alles, the managing director of the Gateway Group, will be the chief guest at opening ceremony which will be held at 8 am on Saturday February 15.
Dinesh Gunawardena, Minister of Foreign Relations, Skills Development, Employment and Labour Relations, and the and Leader of the House of Parliament, will grace the closing ceremony as the Chief Guest on Sunday February 16 at 2 pm. Premila Paulraj, Regional Director – Asia, Pearson Plc, and Shea Wickremasinghe, Group Managing Director at CBL Group, will be the guests of honour.