31st October 1999
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Rainbow take overall titles
By Ravi Nagahawatte
The swimmers of Rainbow Aquatic Club stole the thunder on the final day of the Inter-Club Swimming Gala by bagging both the men and women's overall titles at the Royal College swimming pool yesterday.
The men's team of the Rainbow Aquatic Club emerged winners by accumulating 249 points while Sinhalese Sports Club came a close second with 243 points. Otters Aquatic Club took third spot with 190 points .
SSC though coming second in the overall men's tally added some sparkle to the days events by winning the 4x66 meters Medley Relay with a record timing of 2 minutes and 43.46 seconds . The winning team comprised A.Karunaratne, G. Ranatunga, G. Dulapandan and Asela Pradeep.
Dulapadan was associated with two other records which were established in the championship when he took first place with record timings in the 66 meter Butterfly and Free Style events .
Tanuja Dayananda of Otters Aquatic Club held sway in the men's Under 12 '33 meter Back Stroke' event by clocking a record timing of 24.32 seconds in the heats worked off on Friday.
However Dayananada took 24. 51 seconds to finish the final yesterday even though it did not stop him from winning the event.
Rainbow Aquatic Club annexed the women's title with 339 points . SSC ended up in second spot with 230 points followed by Otters Aquatic Club who settled for third place with 151 points.
Lucky Park SC
By Saif Izzadeen
Defending champions Park SC Matale rode on penalty shootout luck to enter the final of the second Singer Cup inter-club hockey tournament after beating CH and FC in the semi-final at the Astro Turf at Reid Avenue yesterday.
It was simply luck which smiled on the Matale Club after they had to play second fiddle to the CH and FC throughout the game. At halftime the scores were dead-locked at 0-0 and this was the score when the final whistle was blown.
CH and FC must blame themselves for this defeat as they controlled the game from the start. However poor finishes saw them missing scoring opportunity at least on four occasions
Snooker title for Susantha
Susantha Boteju of the Otters Aquatic Club won the Seventh M. J. M. Lafir snooker title defeating India's F. A. Salim by six frames to four at the MICH tables at Pasha Villa yesterday.
Boteju and Salim tied with two frames each in the first session played in the morning yesterday and wrapped it up by winning another four frames to Salim's two with breaks of 72 and 63. In the semi-finals, Susantha beat F. A. Fahim, another Indian by five frames to nil while Salim beat his counterpart Ranjan by five frames to three.
The final was played for the best of 11 frames.
Susantha thus was awarded the M. J. M. Lafir Challenge Trophy, a replica and a cash prize of Rs. 15.000 donated by M. J. M. Azwer, while Salim was awarded the runners-up trophy and Rs. 7.500 in cash donated by Shafeek Rajabdeen. Prem Prabash of India beat Khobhala Sirisoma of the Ports Authority by 852 points to 438 to win the M. J. M. Lafir Billiards Trophy and Rs. 15.000 in cash donated by Shafeel Brothers
Dejan, Randy are karting champions
Fourteen-year-old Dejan de Zoysa and Randy Batcho emerged winners at the Go-Kart and Pro-Kart at the Caltex All Island Karting championships, round 3 conducted by the Motor Racing Association (MRA) held at the Alcartas Kart Track at Battaramulla.
Thomian schoolboy Dejan de Zoysa won the open and junior events in Pro-Karting despite having a bad start, excelling in his class with the last laps run on wet conditions with Ameen Deane the race leader taking a spin in the fourth lap.
Dejan won the junior event easily though startled to see his nine- year-old sister off to a flying start.
Randy Batcho the emerging star in go-karting won the National and Open event through some opportunistic manoeuvres.
Randy in his first season as a go-karter has proved to be very competitive amongst the best and will be a strong contender for the ten round championships.
Sheran Cooke though down with the flu raced to the international title in his normal flamboyant style, while S. A. Daminda came in a close second with a daring drive.
S. A. Harsha, Daminda's brother too fared well in the national and open events, which saw Nimal Wimalasuriya take the first place in the Karting event Yamaha's with young Mikhail Selvanayagam second and evergreen Sampath third. The Ladies' event which was revived saw an interesting contest with Quadijah taking the chequered flag first followed by Anusha Malalasekera and Dharshini Jayaratna.
Jaffna netballers pick of the day
Jaffna made their presence felt in uncertain terms when they qualified to play in the quarter-finals of the Junior Netball Nationals at the Sports Ministry Grounds yesterday.
Jaffna, playing in a sport contest after nearly 17 years gave a superb display and finished as runners-up to Kandy A in Group D.
Air Force and Youth Services too qualified to the quarter-finals from Group A while Colombo District Netball Association qualified from Group B and Gampaha Deepthi and Matara from Group C.
It was disheartening to note three districts being deprived of playing in the competition due to a rule which states that they could only field two players who are under 18 and the others in the team should be over 18 and under 21 years of age.
The teams which were hit by this rule, but were present at the grounds were: Western Province, Poramadulla and Anuradhapura.
Results. Group A - Air Force beat Youth Services 28-4; Youth Services beat Galle 12-8; Group B - Colombo beat Tri Star 29-6, Tri-Star beat Hambantota 21-6; Colombo beat Matale A 28-9; Moneragala beat Hambantota 27-1. Group C - Matara beat Anuradhapura 25-13; Gampaha Deepthi beat Anuradhapura 25-15. Group D - Jaffna beat Matale B 26-10; Kandy beat Mercantile 30-7; Kandy beat Jaffna 31-16. Walk-overs were a frequent feature of the day. The competition will be continued today at the same venue.
Sri Lankan Airlines golf classic completed in style.
By Tita Nathanielsz
The Sri Lankan Air Lines Golf Classic just concluded at the Ridgeways of the Royal Colombo Golf Club was absolutely great, far eclipsing standards of last year. There was greater togetherness with a tremendous spirit of camaraderie which lit up the spirits of the crowded 19th hole both evenings. The golf was excellent too, with 2 young stars bringing in excellent performances and richly deserving the prize awards of flights on business class to any destination of their individual choosing. Sri Lankan Airlines were outstandingly magnanimous.
De Mel Wins
Laksiri de Mel and Ranil Pathirana tied with 38 points each and the other to join this duo was our visitor from Delhi Abhai Singh. All three played excellent golf under conditions which were not the best. Soggy fairways, slow greens and cakey bunkers were irritating impediments. However the trio made good remarkably with De Mel decreed the winner with the best back nine.
Pathirana moved into 2nd position easing off Singh by a needle thin margin. The three of them fly to any chosen destination through the courtesy of Sri Lankan Airlines in the absolute comfort of Business Class.
Shayanika Shines
In the Ladies Division, Shayanika De Silva performed as well as the men with a praiseworthy return of 38 points. Rarely on the course, totally engrossed in academic pursuits she hardly had time for a few practice swings volunteered papa De Silva before she was off and away on a rewarding encounter against the course which she beat. She collected a glamour trophy and a ticket to any destination on Sri Lankan Airlines. Usha de Silva and Hanisha Darvani visiting from Delhi converged on 35 points each. Both praiseworthy performances were amply rewarded with handsome trophies and airline tickets to exotic destinations.
Old Senior
Tissa Haththotuwa, the mental specialist was well balanced to complete a round he will not forget to remember. He grossed 91 and gave the entire Club house a shot by shot commentary of his rewarding round. He was in cracking form and spent an elastic hour at the 19th in the spirit that most golfers get into after unexpected success. Haththotuwa collected a fab Sri Lankan Airlines holiday package for 2 and he is now searching for company.
Rajawella Golf
Tony Whitham's proud exhibit, the Victoria Course at Digana has really turned picturesque and additionally the fairways are tremendous and the greens are putting true. The foreign visitors played the course through their package tour and were all rapt with excitement over the beauty of the location.
A tournament was conducted in style preceding the Ridgeways championship which was won by S.M Kang with 36 points and coming behind was P. Mehta of India. A large crop of visitors from overseas brought in by Sri Lankan Airlines participated in both tournaments and from all we witnessed they had a massive ball taking back happy memories of a pleasant stay in Sri Lnka - thanks to our Airlines.
The Happy End
Joe Perera, Sumal Perera and Chutti Munsoor impressed considerably playing the type of golf that would give them a ride to a chosen destination. Then suddenly unprovoked they shifted to a current military style of play through the fairways going rig left right, left right and left right ending up trapped in bunkers. I am told that 5 each will receive a one way ticket to the Maldives through the courtesy of thier pals at the19th.
Michael Dias ran into turbulence and could do nothing to prevent a belly landing. Kumar Boralessa handled the joy stick with skill and picked altitude over the water with consumate ease. Akbar Khan was banking cleverly and on the 18th he was in full thrust when he shot an excellent par after a poor tee shot. Hemal Fernando who takes good care of hearts nearly got stricken when he hit the water on the first. He continued with a dose of aquaphobia but recovered superbly to go all smiles on the way home and to his clinic. Sarath Piyaratne cracked a relishing 31 points by the 13th and at close of play he had 32 points and anguish.
At sunset on Sunday after 2 days play a twin century or more of players, spouses and invitees moved into the Trans Asia for cocktails, awards and a banquet dinner. S.K. Wickremasinghe,the well known popular personality in the commercial and social world of Sri Lanka, now Chairman of Sri Lnkan Airlines distributed the main awards. Channa and his shapely glamour girls produced a brilliant dance ensemble and music for dancing and hip twisting was provided by Aquarius. There was much praise for Manuela Motha and her team of organisers.
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