Peterite domination continues in schools tennis for the fifth
consecutive year
St Peter's College, Colombo continued their unrivalled dominance in
the Sri Lanka schools tennis arena when they won their fifth consecutive
all island inter-school overall tennis championship in the very recently
concluded tournament at the Sri Lanka Tennis Association (SLTA) courts.
With a very short history in this game the Peterites have been the top
tennis playing school by displaying the traditional powerhouses in this
very competitive schools championship.
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St Peter’s College,
All Island Boys inter schools tennis championship 2011 overall
champions |
Seated from left to right: Kevin
Markandarajah (Asst. Coach), Dinith Pathiraja (Coach), Hamdhan
Othman (College Captain), Rev Fr Travis Gabriel (Rector), Rev Fr
Lakmin Prasanga Silva (Sports Coordinator), Chinthika Shaveen
(Vice Captain), Amantha Weerasinghe (Vice Captain), Bernard
Jesuthasan (Master in charge), Subashan (Asst Coach)
Standing from left to right (1st row): Naweed Nazeel,
Thariq Saboor, U Srinath, Mark Seneviratne, Adhel Reza, Demintha
Fonseka, Kavinka Fernando, Brendan Schwallie, Nidish Gulawita,
Meshan Nanayakkara, Rashaad Jamaldeen, Ramin Dharmaratne, Nabeel
Sabri, R Krishanthan, Davishka Ranasinghe, U Dilshanth.
Standing from left to right (2nd row): Shashanka Gomez,
Aaron Assauw, Kalana Wijerathne, Senel Rohana, Ashfaaq Ahamed,
Nafees Sabri, N Nishangan, R Rajeevan, Sanjeev Mohankumar,
Aritha Weerasinghe, S Venujan, Abhishek Muttiah, Chehan
Fernando, Shanitha Perera, Radley Perumal.
Absent: Ravindhu Athukorala, Harsha Peiris, Haneef Zarook,
Nisheth Mendis, S Inthujan, Isuru Wijerathne. |
The tournament started with the under 17 age group where the boys of
blue, white and gold were unconquerable. The Peterites led by their Sri
Lanka junior players Aritha Weerasinghe, Aaron Assauw and Nishangan
Nadaraja who have represented Sri Lanka in various tournaments including
the Junior Davis Cup and the World Juniors tennis tournament beat St
Thomas' Prep School 35-0, St. Thomas' College, Matale 35-0 Royal College
35-0, St. Benedict's College 35-0, S Thomas College, Mt Lavinia 35-0 and
Trinity College, Kandy 30-5 in their group stage matches. In the
semi-final, they faced St Joseph's College, Maradana, which they won
3-0. They went on to win the championship by beating Royal College 3-0
in the final. The team also comprised Sanjeev Mohankumar, Harsha Peiris,
Radley Perumal, Shashanka Gomez, Kalana Wijeratne, Senel Rohana and
Haneef Zarook.
Buoyed by this success the Peterites then entered the under 19 age
group. In the under 19 age group, the Peterites led by Chinthika Shaveen,
who has represented Sri Lanka in the Junior Davis Cup last year beat
British School 35-0, Lyceum International School, Nugegoda 35-0 and St
Sebastian's College 35-0. The lost 26-9 to a strong Ananda College team
in their final group encounter in a hard fought battle. They lost the
semi-final to Royal College 3-1 who went on to win the championship. In
a gruelling encounter for the 3rd place, the Peterites beat the very
strong S Thomas College Mt Lavinia team, who were the favourites to win
this match, 3-1. The team was captained by Hamdhan Othman. The team also
included Amantha Weerasinghe, Nafees Sabri, Sivenesaraja Venujan,
Rajeevan Rajendhrasingham, Ravindhu Athukorale, Abhishek Muttiah,
Ashfaaq Ahamed and Rashaad Jamaldeen.
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St Peter’s College,
All Island Under 17 Tennis Champions |
Seated from left to Right: Kevin
Markandarajah (Asst Coach) Dinith Pathiraja (Coach), Aritha
Weerasinghe (Captain), Rev Fr Travis Gabriel (Rector), Rev Fr
Lakmin Prasanga Silva (Sport’s Coordinator), Aaron Assauw (Vice
Captain), Bernard Jesuthasan (Master in Charge), Subashan (Asst
Coach)
Standing from Left to Right: Shashanka Gomez, N Nishangan,
Kalana Wijerathne, Sanjeev Mohankumar, Senel Rohana, Radley
Perumal. Absent: Harsha Peiris, Haneef Zarook |
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St Peter’s
College, All Island Under 15 Tennis Champions 2011 |
Seated from left to right: Kevin
Markandarajah (Asst Coach), Dinith Pathiraja (Coach), Davishka
Ranasinghe (Captain), Rev Fr Travis Gabriel (Rector), Rev Fr
Lakmin Prasanga Silva (Sports Coordinator), Shanitha Perera
(Vice Captain), Bernard Jesuthasan (Master in charge), Subashan
(Asst Coach)
Standing from Left to Right: Naweed Nazeel, Nabeel Sabri,
Demintha Fonseka, Chehan Fernando, Ramin Dharmarathne, R
Krishanthan, U Dilshanth. Absent: Nisheth Mendis. |
Then it was turn of the future of Peterite tennis to show what they
could do in the under 13 age group. It was accepted that this year,
2011, this was the age group which would go a long way towards deciding
the honours of this year's tournament. The Peterite juniors displayed a
solid performance in the under 13 age group. They beat D S Senanayake
College 35-0 and a strong Royal College team 35-0. They beat Ananda
College 3-1 to enter the finals where they lost 3-2 to S Thomas'
College, Mt Lavinia to finish runners-up in this age group after an
exciting and an extremely closely contested final. This was an extremely
creditable performance as the Peterites were not considered favourites
in this age group. It speaks volumes for the discipline, commitment and
the determination of the Peterite tennis players that they almost won
this age group. The team comprised Kavinka Fernando (capt), Meshan
Nanayakkara, Udayachandran Srinath, S Inthujan, Isuru Wijerathne,
Brendan Schwallie, Mark Seneviratne, Adhel Riza, Thariq Saboor and
Nidish Gulawita.
Finally it was the under 15 age group which had to bear the
responsibility of keeping the trophy home for the 5th consecutive year.
They knew that their performance would decide the all island overall
inter-schools trophy for 2011. The Peterites entered into this age group
led by their two Sri Lanka under 14 players namely, Chehan Deepal
Fernando and Davishka Ranasinghe. They also had their top juniors on
show in this age group with Nabeel Sabri, R Krishanthan and U Dilshanth
playing for them along with Shanitha Perera, Demintha Fonseka, Nisheth
Mendis, Ramin Dharmaratne and Naweed Nazeel. But they also knew that
they were playing this age group with the points for the overall trophy
tied with Royal College, Colombo 7 who had been their closest rivals for
the last 4 years as well.
In the group stages the Peterites comfortably beat Maliyadeva
College, Kurunegala 35-0, St Benedict's College, Kotahena 35-0, St
Sebastian's College, Moratuwa 35-0, Trinity College, Kandy 35-0, St.
Thomas' Prep School, Kollupitiya 35-0 and the very strong Ananda
College, Colombo 35-0. After winning through the group stages
comfortably with this all conquering team the Peterites faced the S
Thomas' College, Mt Lavinia in the semi-finals and beat them by 3
matches to nil to reach the final.
In the other semi-final Ananda College had beaten Royal College in a
very close match and thus St Peter's had to play Ananda College in the
final. In the final St Peter's College beat Ananda College by 3 matches
to nil to win the championships and thereby winning coveted all island
inter school tennis championship for the 5th consecutive year and for
the 6th time in the Peterite history. |