All Island Schools Athletic Relay Carnival:
Benedictine athletes covered themselves in glory in the Northern capital city of Jaffna, winning the All Island Schools Athletics Relay Carnival, the glamour event of the school’s athletic calendar for the second consecutive time, at the championship held from 8-10 September.
Though unfortunately disqualified in two events, in which they were particularly strong, the boys from St. Benedict’s achieved victory by a comfortable margin, followed by Maris Stella College, Negombo in second place.
The Benedictine juniors (under 12 and under 14 teams) faired moderately collecting some useful points. Under 16 with Anuja Prabashwara, Sasidu Bandara, Uditha Dilshan, Oshada Mattou, Pasidu Senanayake, Tejana Wahalthanthri, Sandeepa Vishanperuma and Uvindu Malshan won gold in the 4x 100 meters event and were disqualified after finishing second in the 4x200 meters event due to a marking issue.
The seniors were in terrific form completely dominating the under 18 and under 20 segments. In the under 18s sprinter Sahan Rajapaksha returned after a serious injury and P.N.T Auchithya after a bout of dengue.
Others in the squad were World Junior Games returnees Santhus Weerasinghe and Thiran Ravishka, Dilan Bogoda, Yohan Silva, Manusha Priyashan, Tharidu Nimesh and Visal Samainda. They won gold in the 4x100 meters, 4x200 meters, medley relay and silver in the 4x400 meters, under severe muddy underfoot conditions.
The strong under 20 outfit consisted of Supun Nimasha, Shammi Lakshan, both of whom selected for international meets, captain of the team Shiran Angelo Jeganathan, Randu Perera, Yohan Dias, Bawantha Rangana, Pruthivi Kavishan and Nimantha Perera.
They won gold in the 4x200 meters, medley relay, and silver in the 4x100 meter events.
In the last event of the day much looked forward to 4x400 meter relay they were disqualified due to a possible wrong decision.
The reason given was that Benedictine anchor Supun Nimasha allegedly ran into the runner from Bandaranayake College Gampaha.
However, as already reported in the media earlier in the week, video evidence clearly showed that the Benedictine anchor was in the front at the first bend and the runner from Bandaranayake College came from inside and bumped into Supun Nimasha out of the lane and it took some time for him to get back in.
The Education Ministry officials have collected the video evidence after the awards presentation and have assured the Benedictines that justice will be done after examining the video evidence.
The result of the final race did not prevent the Bens from becoming overall champions, since they had an unbeatable lead at the commencement of the event.
However, if the point’s difference was close, as it often happens in big competitions a mistake like this could have been decisive and should be prevented by all means. In a sport like athletics, where enthusiastic youngsters from every nook and corner of Sri Lanka and from all possible backgrounds, come together in a spirit of camaraderie and sportsmanship, meets like the All Island Schools Athletic Relay carnival should be assure that justice and fairplay prevails at all times.
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