My first introduction to athletics at Royal College was in 1978 when we had to go through our compulsory standards tests. During the Physical Training (PT) periods it was usually cricket or football, however I remember when the Sports Meet was announced every student had to participate in the standards test.
Royal College 1986 Athletics Team |
The tests included a 100m sprint, high jump, throwing a cricket ball and long jump. The incentive was to win the prize on offer for each grade. I was in class 4s2 and we made sure that we came out on top for our grade. One of my classmates was Janath De Silva and he managed to get a display box made through his father’s company Sherman & Sons to hold the trophy. The trophy was proudly displayed in our classroom for the rest of the year.
Mr. G.V.M Somakumara carried out the practice sessions and the tests along with the help of the senior athletes like Ravi Widyalankara, Roshan Fernando, Lalith Budhdhadasa, and Chrishanta De Mel are some of the names that come to mind. The Royal College Junior School sports meet was round the corner and these tests were used to select the participants for the sports meet. These senior athletes helped us out by training us after school and showing us the techniques in our respective events. I was selected for the 100m, 200m and the High Jump.
My memories of this meet are of Boake House winning it, and I won the 200m in record time. Some of the athletes from the junior school were selected to join the Athletics Team in 1979; amongst them were Sagala Ratnayake, M.I. Cader, Lasantha Calyanaratne, Nuresh Perera, Rangana Jayatileke and M.I.M Riffa. This was my introduction to Athletics at Royal College, which became my passion over the years.
Lasting memory
I was quite apprehensive when I first attended the training sessions. Getting on to the senior college grounds, seeing some of the other sportsmen practicing in the same grounds (like the cricketers, ruggerites etc) had an aura for us juniors.
One lasting memory was when walking across the grounds to attend practice in the afternoon when I heard a loud stentorian voice calling out to me, “Young man, come here”, I kept on walking oblivious to being summoned when I heard the voice again “You there walking in the red tracksuit, come here at once!”
That’s when I turned and looked to see who was calling me. A stern looking gentleman dressed in white standing near the Tamarind Tree wanted to know what I was doing at the senior sports ground. That was my first encounter with the infamous Mr. E.C Gunesekara.
1979 was also my first taste of success at an inter school meet. The Under 12 4x100m Relay Team comprising of M.I.M Riffa, Sagala Ratnayake, Rangana Jayatilake and I came first at the Relay Carnival. We may have been juniors in the team but were made to feel an integral part of the team. We had the senior athletes attending our events and encouraging us, and cheering us on during our event. All athletes were encouraged to go and support the teams and athletes who were taking part. Athletics is considered an individual sport, but early on the camaraderie and the togetherness that I experienced helped me understand that there is no “I” in team.
The 1979 Athletics Team was a great team to be part of where we won all the trophies that were on offer - Junior Tarbat, Senior Tarbat and the Relay Carnival. There were some great athletes in that era with the likes of Ravi Widyalankara, Rajiva Wijetunga, Chrisantha Ferdinando, E.R.L Fernando, The Indraratne brothers, K.M.S Perera and some of them like Ferdi, Athula and Asela, Rajiva went on to achieve higher honours in representing Sri Lanka. I think Rajiva still competes in the Masters Games.
In 1980 we won the Senior Tarbat with a majority of 117 points over the closest rival STC. Royal College has the distinction of winning the inaugural Meet in 1930, the Silver Jubilee Meet in 1955 and the Golden Jubilee Meet in 1980. There were subsequent successes in the early 1980’s where we won the Tarbat and Relay Carnival, but failed to match the success of the late 70’s. The last time we won the Senior Tarbat was in 1982 under the captaincy of Dharshana Wijegunasinghe.
The vice captain of the team was Sarinda Unamboowe who was a fine hurdler and also represented College in Cricket and Rugby. Sari was a fine athlete who went on to win colours in Athletics, Rugby and Cricket, and Public Schools Colours in Athletics. As I understand he is still a fine athlete climbing Mt. Kilimanjaro not once but twice and also making an ascent on base camp in Nepal.
I remember the mid-80’s as years that promised much but under delivered. One particular event sticks in my memory is in 1984 the Ministry of Education made a change to the Athletics Calendar and the respective events. The much popular events such as the Junior & Senior Tarbat Meets, Relay Carnival were all discontinued and replaced with the National School Games. We had a very promising team and fielded athletes who had done well in the Senior Tarbat meet in the previous year.
The team included the likes of Ranil Nawana who was the Captain, Nadeeja Jayaratne, Ramli Mohammed, Roshan Askey, Asanka Amerasinghe, Shiamal Jayasinghe, Duminda Wijedasa, Harish Amerasekera, SD Somakeerthi, Niroshana Bandara, Sagala Ratnayake, TWS Peiris, Ranjan Amaeradeva to name a few. We arrived for the Colombo South Zone meet and much to our chagrin we were told that we did not have the proper documentation. As per the rules we had to have an ID card AND an original birth certificate – not all of the team had both!
As the captain Ranil took ownership and had many a discussion with the officials to negotiate some settlement, but they did not budge – we were disqualified. It was a huge disappointment to all of us as we had trained hard and put in a lot of effort only to be told we were disqualified on a technicality.
However, all was not lost – it turned out that some events were postponed and that gave some of us a chance in participating in the inter school meets that year. Which was fortunate for Riffa, Shiamal Jayasinghe, Dhammika Edirisinghe and myself. We formed a quartet that went on to achieve School and National Schools Colours standard in the 4x400m event.
The National School Games were held at the Sugathadasa Stadium, which had a brand new track laid out and was a very grand event. We won the Silver Medal losing out to Trinity College in a very close race. The Trinity College 4x400m team included the likes of Nilantha Rathnayake, TP Weerasooriya. TP went on to win the coveted Trinity Lion for his achievements in Rugby, Athletics and Cricket.
There were quite a few prominent athletes at that National School Games and some of them went on to represent Sri Lanka. The likes of Padmakumar Amarasekera, Benildus Fernando and Sriyantha Dissanayake come to mind and all of them had stellar careers in the years to come.
The athletics calendar used to have quite a few events out of town and made it an interesting experience. There was quite a lot of friendly rivalry at these meets but also created some lifetime friendships off the park. I remember onetime when the Junior Tarbat was being held in Gurutalawa there was an invitational club relay event. However there were only two clubs participating. Ever the opportunists spotted the chance to get a placing in the club relay only if we could participate.
The Royalists and Thomian’s who were there colluded to form a club named “Roy-Tho” and put in an entry to participate in the club relay event. The team included Kapila Wijegunewardena, Lasantha Dahanayake (I think), Sarinda Unamboowe and SA de Silva. The team that was cobbled together representing a club named “Roy-Tho” came second from memory – such was the talent!
Taking part in athletics was also my introduction to Mr. K.L.F Wijedasa who was to be my coach for many years, and Mr V.A.B Samarakoon who was the Master in-charge of Athletics. Mr Samarakoon or Sam as he was affectionately known was in charge of Athletics for many years and went on to become the Senior Games Master.
He was a great disciplinarian, but was always there on hand to help if needed. Mr. Samarakoon was the master-in-charge he attended every athletics meet. Whenever we had a competitor in action he made sure that he was at that event be it the finishing line or where the field events were being held. Sam was not one to sit in the stands and watch the events unfold. I remember once at the Junior Tarbat meet held in Galle I finished in third position but was not listed when the winners were announced. Sam picked it up and was there to lodge the protest and sure enough there was a mistake in the numbers that were read out.
Honorary coach
I believe Sam and Mr. Wijedasa complemented each other very well. Mr. Wijedasa was the coach and Sam made sure that everybody was present for practice sessions on time and I mean everybody. If someone was absent you had to explain to Sam why you did not attend training and you had to have a good excuse or it would be a very uncomfortable meeting.
We were fortunate to have the services of Mr. K.L.F. Wijedasa as our coach early in our careers. Mr. Wijedasa who was known as K.L.F was an honorary coach and it was Royal’s good fortune that he was working at the Colombo University, which meant he was readily accessible to the athletes at all times. Mr. Wijedasa a champion fine sprinter in his day and a former national record for the 100m in the 1950’s related very well to the young athletes. He had a stellar coaching career and went on to produce many internationally reputed athletes like Vijitha Wijesekera, Sunil Gunewardena, K.G Badra and Kosala Sahabandu.
In my association with Mr. Wijedasa he was not only a coach but also a mentor. He is someone who instilled good values in everyone that he came across. His mantra was to make Athletics an enjoyable sport for everyone. He trained us hard but also instilled that that there is no loser in Athletics as long as you have performed better than what you have performed previously. Above all be a good sportsman accepting defeat or success in the same spirit.
Both Mr. Wijedasa and his wife Ransiri a reputed athlete herself dedicated their time to athletics. He was also was one of the founding members of the much famed CT&FC Athletics club.
What amazes me now is that teachers like Messrs Samarkoon, Wijedasa etc gave lot of their time after school to help us young fellows succeed in our chosen sporting careers.
These teachers always attended the practice sessions pretty much on a daily basis, upheld discipline and quite often were the last to leave the grounds. I must say that all of it was voluntary in their time. They also took a keen interest in the sport itself and was there to help athletes in everyway including medical care or making that call to Dr. Thurairajah to help an athlete with their rehab or a letter to Glass House for X-rays or treatment of injuries. This was true of all disciplines in that era. I remember the likes of Mr. Munasinghe, V.H Nanayakkara and Kiribanda having the same dedication for the cricket team in their day.
Athletics has been the corner stone for many sporting disciplines at Royal. I remember the pre-season training for Cricket and Rugby included taking part in the College Road Race and sometimes the senior athletes or the athletics coach would be asked to come and take the dreaded fitness sessions.
A number of athletes have gone on to represent the school in multiple sports including some famous ones like Summa Navaratnam who represented Sri Lanka in Rugby and Athletics.
He was awarded colours at the age of 15 and at one time he was dubbed the fastest man in Asia. Some of my teammates and contemporaries like Rajiva Wijetunge, Ajith De Alwis, Asela Indraratne, Sarinda Unamboowe, S.Y Liu, Janaka Lenaduwa, Sagala Ratnayake, Harish Amerasekera, Nadeeja Jayaratne, Shiamal Jayasinghe, Chandimal Fernando went on to represent Royal in multiple sports.
I was fortunate to represent Royal in multiple sports and the teachers encouraged taking part in sports albeit not at the expense of your studies. As the old adage goes – a sound mind in a sound body being in the ultimate aim in education.
Buddika Aluiwhare,
Athletics Captain of Royal
College - 1986. |
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