The British School in Colombo held its inaugural Sports and Colours Celebration Evening in the school auditorium recently. A packed house of award winners, parents and guests had the pleasure of watching the events unfold. Our chief guest was Mahela Jayawardene former Sri Lankan cricket captain, one of Sri Lanka’s most celebrated batsman. Jayawardene was a prolific scorer, he made the highest ever score by a Sri Lankan in Test cricket, scoring 374 in the second Test of Sri Lanka’s home series against South Africa. He has the prestigious record of having scored more than 10,000 runs in ODIs and was only the second cricketer to appear in 600 international matches. An inspirational role model for all our prize winners to meet.
Events unfolded with the singing of the school song and followed by a delightful speech from outgoing Sports Captain Miharu Ramanayake, then came the welcome of the new Director of Sport who looked at the sporting traits and characteristics of the Lions and the Lions PRIDE. He also introduced School Records for both swimming and track and field athletics, which are a chance for any students who represent the school in meets to achieve and celebrate.
Also the school will be applying for membership of FOBISIA (the Federation of British International Schools in Asia) which will hopefully provide a wide range of sporting and non sporting opportunities. Next over 120 students in year 7 to year 11 were awarded sports merits by Mahela Jayawardene and the outgoing sports captains were all recognised for their sterling work last year by Deputy Principal Simon Harwood. A further 23 students from last year’s year 12 were awarded school colours. This was broken up by two delightful pieces from the school band.
The Sports captains for 2018-19 were then announced with Senuka Dharmakeerthi and Yenuli Sirbaddana being names of as the Games Captains. And finally Mahela Jayawardene presented the prestigious British School Lions Awards to Gavin Karunanayake and Azquiya Ususph for their outstanding contribution to sports here at the British School and for their fantastic achievements.