Former national cap Duminda de Silva is to be the new rugby high performance manager of Sri Lanka Rugby responsible for the sport’s growth and development.
A sportsman who was born in Ratnapura, where he had his education and took to athletics as a sport at kindergarten, De Silva was a champion in track and field in all age groups and his pet events were the 100m, 200m and long jump.
From there he moved to S. Thomas’ College Guruthalawa and played basketball before enrolling at Trinity College where he excelled in three sports, athletics, basketball and rugby.
During his school career, De Silva won many awards including the Ryde Gold Medal for the best all-round student at Trinity College in the year 1992.
Further he went on to represent the country in basketball at the age of 14 years and later represented Sri Lanka in rugby from 1993 to 2002 while playing for Kandy Sports Club from 1993 to 1996, CR & FC from 1997 to 1999, CH & FC from 2000 to 2005 and Havelock Sports Club in 2012.
The six-foot two-inch De Silva is the only player to win the league championship at three clubs. He was also Mr. Sri Lanka in 1999 and went on to represent Sri Lanka at the Mr. International contest in India where he won the award for Mr. Physic by beating 38 other contestants.
He was also a semi finalist at the Mr. World Contest in Scotland.
De Silva is a firm believer in professional qualification and went on to obtain his MBA in 2010 and acquired many other educational qualifications afterwards.
In 2012 he decided to educate himself in physical fitness and selected Fitness Institute Australia in order to qualify as a personal trainer.
“It is important to qualify yourself before you train others as experience alone will not be enough to effectively train people to achieve their goals”, said De Silva.
He currently trains sports professionals, fitness lovers, leading professionals and kids and is a director and trainer at Glory Fitness Centre.
De Silva’s qualifications have him in possession of a Certificate in fitness from the Fitness Institute Australia, Master of Business Administration – The ICFAI University India Dehradum Advance Diploma in management accounting, Certificate in Banking and Finance – Institute of Bankers of Sri Lanka part qualified in Diploma in Banking and Finance - Institute of Bankers of Sri Lanka, Diploma in Marketing – London College of Computing and Management Science.
Analysts say De Silva is probably the finest catch for Sri Lanka Rugby at a time when such important posts go to foreigners for large sums of money.