Six hundred and eighteen sports stars to receive awards

Yasaratne Gamage

A total of 618 school sport persons who achieved excellent standards in both international and national sports arena, will receive awards at the 18th National Schools Colours Award Ceremony 2010 at BMICH on July 25.

Education Ministry, Sri Lanka Schools Sports Council (SLSSC) and the sponsor Nestle Lanka PLC have organized the event which is to be graced by the Prime Minister D M Jayaratne.

Out of the 30 sports considered for awarding colours Aquatic Sports have topped the list by gaining 77 awards followed by athletics with 64 awards, while 55 awards will be for Karate.

As usual western province is in the lead with 362 awards and Central and North Western have gained 109 and 62 awards respectively. Sportspersons in Sabaragamuwa will receive 41 while Southern Province will collect 28 awards. The rest of the awards are to Uva - eight, Northern - four, North Central - three and Eastern one award.

Last year nine International Schools have gained 16 awards while St Patrick's College, Thilapalei Public School and Udappuwa Tamil MV share the awards for Northern Province.

A press briefing was held regarding the awards at CR and FC pavilion where SLSSC president Rohana Karunaratne pointed out the allocation of comparatively large number of award for weight lifting and power lifting as more school sportspersons have shown excellent performance at national level.

SLSSC has considered the nominations from schools and sports governing bodies when selecting the award recipients.

Nestle Lanka Corporate Affairs and Communications Assistant Vice President Bandula Egodage expressed their pleasure in sponsoring the event, right from the start to honour school sportsmen and sports women who brought fame to their schools, and the country.

Ministers Bandula Gunawardena, Mahindananda Aluthgamage, Nestle Lanka Managing Director Alois Hofbauer will be there as well, according to the organizers.

Nominees for awards for special skills in the field of sports.

Upcoming sportswoman:

Nadeeshana Henderson (Gateway College, Rajagiriya - Athletics), Nuwani Navodya (Dharmasoka College, Ambalangoda - Table Tennis), Dinushki Premanath (Girls High School, Kandy - Chess), Achini Rathnasiri (Visakha Vidyalaya - Badminton).

Upcoming sportsman:

Y G C N Wijesinghe (Walala A Ratnayake Central College - Athletics), Hasintha Sasiranga (Dharmasoka College, Ambalangoda - Table Tennis), R A I S Ranasinghe (Ananda College -Weight lifting and Power lifting).

Most talented sportswoman:

Akshana Maralanda (Mahamaya GC, Kandy -Athletics), Madavi Weeratunga (Mahamaya GC, Kandy -Aquatics), Tharunya Shashini (Sri Devananda College - Badminton), Miniruwani Samarakoon (Girls High School, Kandy - Aquatics).

Most talented sportsman:

Lakshan Koswatta (Ananda College - Athletics), Chameera Geeganage (Dharmasoka College, Ambalangoda - Table Tennis), Dilshan Kariyawasam (Ananda College, Colombo - Badminton), Heshan Unambuwa (Trinity College, Kandy - Aquatics), Shenal Dias (St Peter's College - Basketball and Rugby Football).