Walala Central athletes bring honour and fame to their school

Angu RAJENDRAN

What a week end! Walala A Ratnayake College is again celebrating success as they blazed the field at the All Schools athletics championships for the John Tarbat Cup held at the Sugathadasa stadium last week end. Both boys and girls of the school won their divisions with many outstanding individual performances in all age categories.

This is the ninth year this same school has won the championships for boys and the eleventh year that they have won it for girls. This mixed school tucked away in the hills of Kandy, is well known for their athletes, specially the middle and long distance runners.

Coach Susantha Fernando who has been the head coach of the school finds the commitment of the athletes amazing. 'The school does not have the many facilities of the Colombo schools but we do have a 200m track and the secret of our success lies in the hills surrounding the school,' says Coach Susantha.

Every morning at dawn, the hills come alive with the athletes as they start their endurance training. The athletes are first trained in endurance.

Currently 70 athletes both girls and boys are training under coach Susantha and his assistants Yamuna Ratnayake, HMS Palitha and Ruwan Abeywickrama.

They run up the hills - known as Uphill training and down the hills - known as controlled training. The training on the hills goes on for six days of the week for twelve sessions - both morning and evening. But Sunday is the rest day.

Many national athletes - 'around 20 national athletes have come from this outstanding athletics school', says coach Susantha. Coach and his assistants have been with the school for the last twenty years. One national athlete a year is Coach Susantha's average.

'Manoj Pushpakumara who won the silver medal at the Asian Junior Athletics meet in 2004 with a timing of 46.56 secs in the 400m was my pupil,' says coach Susantha very proudly. 'He also won the bronze medal at the Asian Grand Prix in Malaysia in 2003 with a timing of 1.48.31 secs.'

'Another student of mine Mohamed Shirfraz won the gold medal at the South Asian Championships in Pakistan in 2004 for the 400m,' says the coach. Why not the other athletics events, why only the middle and long distance? Coach Susantha says that since the hills are so conducive to endurance training, his athletes obviously do very well in any event that requires strength and endurance rather than only speed. These events are the middle and long distance running events.

And the Walala athletes find the straight track a breeze after training in such difficult conditions. 'Sometimes they run in the wet paddy fields,' says the coach 'that is part of their training programme.'

'Even if they have not had their breakfast, they will run up and down the hills, such is the commitment of our athletes,' says the coach proudly.

As the school has produced champions in both girls and boys and in all age groups, the children while posing for the photograph refuse to give their names saying that it has been a team effort and they do not want individual credit.

These are children who have well understood the honour and glory of sports and will soon do our country proud.