Navy Colours Nite on grand scale

Sri Lanka Navy's Colours Nite 2012 was held at the Eastern Naval Command Auditorium recently. Sri Lanka Navy Commander Vice Admiral Somathilake Dissanayake graced the occasion as the chief guest. Outstanding sportsmen and women were recognized for their excellence in performance bringing credit to the Navy. Colours were awarded to 329 naval personnel for their achievements at naval command, defence services, national and international levels.

Twenty-six sporting events, which included athletics, basketball, boxing, badminton, body building, cricket, football, games for disabled personnel, hockey, handball, judo, kabadi, karate, musketry, netball, rowing, rugby, sailing, squash, water polo, football, tennis, volleyball, wrestling, wushu and weight lifting were in contention for honours at the mega event, which was held after a lapse of several years due to operational commitments.

Awards for the Best Sportsman for 2005 (POP DPMH Dharmasiri-Boxing), 2006 (Ordinary Seaman WMJC Wanninayake - Games for the Disabled), 2007 (shared by Able Seaman ASSD Kumara - Judo and Wrestling and Ordinary Seaman S M Weerasuriya - Athletics), 2008 (Surgeon Lieutenant MAUK Munasinghe - Wushu), 2009 (Mechanic Engineering IRGS Kumarasinghe - Boxing) and 2010 (Lieutenant Y K Rajapaksa - Rugby and Musketry) were presented to those who excelled in their sporting events.

Inter Command Overall Championships were also awarded in recognition of the respective naval command's achievements at the annual Inter- Command Sports Tournaments.

They were won by the Eastern Naval Command for 2004, the Training Command for 2005, 2007, 2008 and 2010 and the Western Naval Command for 2009. The Navy cultural troupe provided entertainment to the occasion backed by the Navy Band.