Nineteen year old Shenal Dias is a rare breed in the field of sports. His dedication and determination has seen him achieve what a schoolboy would rarely dream of achieving. Shenal a student of St Peter’s College Colombo, as a schoolboy had the rare honour of becoming a double international in sports.
Shenal had the honour of representing the national teams at junior and senior level in rugby and basketball. Coming from a family with a sporting background he has achieved more than what his father Nilantha did being a reputed rugby player during his time.
Shenal Dias makes a break in the game against Isipathana |
The talented youngster emulated his father who represented the Sri Lanka Under 20 rugby team at the Asian Junior Rugby championship in 1985 when he too played for the Sri Lanka Junior Asiad team at the same championship held in Hong Kong last year. Shenal in fact came into the rugby scene by chance which was due to the captain of St Peter’s rugby team of 2008 Poorna Delpachitra who persuaded him to take to the game of rugby. It was his motivation that Shenal has been able to reach this height in rugby.
Prior to that the same year he led the Sri Lanka Under 19 basketball team to Macau having earlier toured with the basketball to Thailand, Vietnam and India. In basketball he has won numerous awards for the best player and attacker in which position he plays.
Shenal speaking to the Sunday Times said that the achievements I have made in the two sports are remarkable especially in rugby where I only started playing in the year 2008 and I have also represented the SLRFU Presidents XV against Defense Services XV in a domestic rugby tournament. I have been involved in basketball since I was nine years while attending Maliyadeva at that time.
My biggest moment in basketball was when I was selected to represent the senior national team at the South Asian Games which was held in Bangladesh last year. Shenal standing at 6’4” said I really worked hard for this and when I look back it gives real satisfaction as this is the dream of any schoolboy and to some extent my dreams have been fulfilled. Despite the busy schedule Shenal has not neglected his studies as he will be sitting for the ‘A’ levels this year. Shenal has a busy schedule stating the day starts with basketball practices at 5.00 in the morning and ends with rugby practices in the evening.
Sometimes it’s exhausting but I don’t want to disappoint my father who makes immense sacrifices for me. I am happy that so far I have not disappointed him. As mentioned earlier Shenal comes from a sporting background.
Shenal posing with some of the trophies he received at rugby and basketball. Pic by Ranjith Perera. |
Apart from his father Nilantha his two uncles Nishantha and Chinthaka were top rugby players. Nishantha led the CH team in 1994 to become champions while Chinthaka led Kurunegala RFC in 1999 to become champions which earned them a promotion to the top league. Besides that his mother Lushina is a former netball star having played for Maliyadeva Balika Kurunegala.
His younger sister Kavishka who is studying at Ladies College is also involved in netball and is a good athlete having participated in the Sir John Tarbat Athletic championship while his elder sister Dinusha who is the USA does not forget to follow Shenal’s progress in the sports arena.
Shenal said all these achievements of mine would not have been possible if not for the support of my parents to which I am really grateful. They put in all their efforts to see me progress and do the best.
Apart from my parents I am also grateful to my two coaches Chaminda Senbukuttiarachchi (Basketball) and Sanath Martis (Rugger) who has had the rare honour of having coached both father Nilantha and son Shenal during his long tenure as a rugby coach.
With the Singer Under 20 inter-schools rugby league tournament having just kicked off Shenal who is yet representing St Peter’s at rugger for sure is going to be more in the news as the season progresses. |
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