Wallala MV athletes make clean sweep

S M Jiffrey Abdeen - Kandy Sports Correspondent

Wallala A Ratnayake Maha Vidyalaya, Menikhinna made a clean sweep of the championship trophies by winning the championship titles for boys and girls and also the overall championship at the Central Province schools Track and Field Meet organized by the Department of Education of the Central Province and concluded at the Bogambara Stadium, Kandy on friday.

This was the 21st time that the athletes from Wallala – a village 15 kilometre from the city of Kandy had won this champion. What is remarkable in their performance was that they got the better all the leading schools in the district of Matale, Kandy and Nuwara Eliya.

Wallala A Ratnayake Maha Vidyalaya won the overall championship for boys with 312 points and they had a clear lead of 113 points over the runners up Trinity College who gathered 199 points. In third place was St. Sylvesters College with 153 points. Finishing fourth was Sri Sumangala College, Kandy with 70 points. St Anthony's College Kandy put up disappointing performance to end up in fifth place with 59 points. Sri Sumangala College and St Sylvesters College have no playing fields to practice while the Antonians have a big grounds at their door step itself.

Wallala A Ratnayake MV completed the double when they wrested the overall championship for girls by accumulating a whopping 414 points. A surprise runners up was Ambagamuwa Central College with 211 points. The lead by Wallala girls was 203 points which gave the elite girls schools from Kandy no chance whatsoever.

Once again it was a poor performance by two leading girls schools from Kandy – Mahamaya Girls College finishing third with 124 points and Girls High School could muster only 94 points to end up in fifth place with 94 points.

The best Athlete for the year 2013 in the category for boys was H M G M Kulaherath of Pujapitiya National School who registered 14.35 metres in the under 19 triple jump.

The Best Athlete in the segment for girls was B M S K Kumari of Wallala A Ratnayake MV, who timed 59.8 seconds in the under 21 400 metres spirit.

Governor of the Central Province Tikiri Kobbekaduwa was the chief guest and he distributed the main awards.