Sports

Football for peace kicks off at St Peter’s

St Peter's tour to the north some years back to play a series of friendly soccer matches with schools over there has created a fruitful association between the sportsmen of both regions. The soccer unit of St Peter's College Colombo took the initiative this year to conduct an inter-school Invitational peace tournament which kicks off tomorrow involving five schools from Jaffna, one school from Mannar and the hosts St Peter's as the seventh team.

Hartley College, Point Pedro, St Henry's Illavalai, Jaffna College, Vaddukodai, St John's College, Jaffna and St Patrick's Jaffna are the five teams from Jaffna with St Xavier's College being the team from Mannar. The brain child behind this unique tournament is none other than rev, Fr Felician Ranjith Perera the rector of St Peter's.

Speaking at the press conference held at the school auditorium Rev. Fr Felician Ranjith Perera stressed that the objective of this soccer tournament is to build and foster bridges of friendship and mutual trust with the firm belief that a long lasting peace and harmony will prevail in Sri Lanka. He further said that definitely the soccer tournament will be a learning experience for all the competing teams.

He went on to say that 'our effort maybe just a drop in the mighty ocean but this small drop could go a long way in bringing friendship among all creed and caste'. He thanked Ms Marie Tharsisus for making this a reality as she was the one who was responsible in St Peter's making that historic trip to Jaffna where we were given a rousing welcome by the people of Jaffna. She was given all the necessary backing by the prefect of games Fr. Sunil Ranjith Perera and his dedicated men.We intend making this an annual event with the involvement of many more schools. The main thing is we want to get this started and we have succeeded. We were not able to have more participation of schools one reason was finance.(MSA)