SLIIT bags APIIT Sports Extravaganza title
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Sri Lanka Institute of Information Technology (SLIIT) accumulated 300 points in total to emerge as overall champions of the APIIT Sports Extravaganza 2022, which ended after a five-week run last week. SLIIT topped the participation of 16 private and state university teams, which competed over five consecutive weekends in five sports disciplines – basketball, badminton, cricket, futsal and swimming.National School of Business Management (NSBM) secured the overall second position after accumulating 275 points from five sports. The overall third position was shared by Kothalawala Defense University (KDU) and hosts Asia Pacific Institute of Information Technology (APIIT), who ended up with 200 points each.
Others who completed in order were University of Sri Jayewardenepura (175 points), Business Management School (BMS), Colombo International Nautical and Engineering College (CINEC), Imperial College, Australian College of Business Technology (ACBT) and University of Colombo, who collected 100 points each. Open University of Sri Lanka followed in with 75 points ahead of University of Moratuwa, who claimed 50 points in total.
Each of the five sports in contention had different winners as Edith Cowan University (ECU) comprehensively bagged the basketball title beating University of Sri Jayewardenepura in the final worked off at the St. Joseph’s College courts. SLIIT secured the third position as Disura Dissanayake emerged the Most Valuable Player of the tournament. Brent Thevakumar was named the Best Offensive Player while Ravindu Jayawardana was named the Best Defensive Player.
The APIIT team with Olympian swimmer Julian Bolling
University of Sri Jayewardenepura ‘A’ bagged the badminton title, after beating Open University of Sri Lanka in the final played at the Mercantile Badminton Association courts. CINEC secured the third position as Mahen Samaranayake bagged the award for the Player of the Tournament.
Hosts APIIT won the Boy’s championship in swimming while their girls’ team secured its third position in the other segment in the two day event worked off at the St. Joseph’s College Swimming Complex. SLIIT won the Girls’ title in swimming as their boys’ team won the third place. KDU was placed second in both Boys’ and Girls’ swimming championships.
The cricket tournament was won by Imperial College, who beat NSBM Greens in the final played at the Dombagoda ground. NSBM Blues and APIIT tied to share the joint third position in cricket.
This Inter-University Sports Extravaganza was organised by the Student Activity Club of APIIT to showcase the athletic abilities of university students in Sri Lanka for the eight year. A total of 1000 athletes were engaged in the five-weekend sports gala, which consisted 16 local state and non-state university sports teams.
Olympian swimmer Julian Bolling, Buddhika Kumuddapperuma, Kavindi Sirimannage and Navod Illukwatte took part in the opening ceremony celebrations upon invitation from the APIIT Extravaganza Student Committee headed by Avishka Wijesiri. Tharula Weerasinghe was the co-chairperson of the unit which also included Afzal Mohammad and Davisi Warnakula as project coordinators.
Winners of the futsal competition
Among others who were directly involved in the organising were Joanna Suzan (Secretary), Dilan Sandakumar (Assistant Secretary), Abhitharan Saravanabawan (Treasurer), Nidhushan Radhakrishnan (Asst. Treasurer), Shaeen Jhan (Media Head), Niruluxanan Vikneswaran and Binan Thewsitha Rathnayaka (Logistic Heads), Rukaiva Shahabdeen and Urthista Mathivalagan (Marketing Heads), Humaid Hazann (Futsal Head), Ahad Rasheed (Basketball Head), Sanuja Perera (Badminton Head), Nuwin Liyanage (Cricket Head) and Chris Rufus (Swimming Head).
The Committee included Elisa Claessen, Abhineth Jayasooriya, Poorna Wijesinghe, Abdul Halique, Mayantha Adikary, Inshaf Anoon, Abhineth Jayasuriya, Praveena Vikneswaran, Dilki Delgoda, Panchala Rupasinghe, Sakunnthala Lakmali, Akeesha Rishan, Adhil Najman, Abdullah Suhail and Shuhaib Fazil.
Hosts APIIT, Pepsi, Eduko Pathways and Sriyani Dress Point supported the event as main sponsors while Hemas Pharmaceuticals, Phone Accessories.lk, Janashakthi Life, Zimantra Leisure Centre, Micklefield Farm and Bungalow, Abdulla Group, Yeti, Abans, Salon Shieela, Kroll Village, Ceylon Paint Group, The Galaxy Auditorium, The Computer Zone, Sky Solutions and Cristal Water contributed with sponsorships to make the event a success.