St. Benedict’s emerge champs as event brings together top athletes of four schools
With a tally of 454 points hosts St. Benedict’s College emerged winners of the annual Saints Athletics Quadrangular 2017 held at the St. Peter’s College ground in Bambalapitiya on February 25 and 26. Thus the Benedictines clinched the Rev. Fr. Joe de Mel Memorial Challenge Trophy on offer for the overall champions while St. Peter’s College won the Ranjith Weerasena Trophy for the overall runners-up with 372 points on board. St Joseph’s College finished overall third with 255 points.
The J.C.W. Obeysekere Memorial Challenge Trophy in the Under-20 age category was won by St. Benedict’s College. They accumulated 116 points. St. Peter’s College followed in at second with 113 points while St. Joseph’s College finished at third with 63 points. The highlight and the best performance of the meet, the Rev. Br. Alexander Cyrillus Memorial Challenge Trophy was awarded to Surinda Jayawickrama of St. Joseph’s College for his performance in the Under-20 100metre sprint. Surinda clocked 11.3 seconds in the race.
The Dunstan Fernando Challenge Trophy for the overall relay champions was won by St. Peter’s, who claimed 81 points. St. Benedict’s emerged runners-up with 75 points while St. Anthony’s and St. Joseph’s finished joint third with 48 points each.
The Hugh de Silva Challenge Trophy for the Under-18s was won by St. Benedict’s College who collected 172 points. St. Peter’s finished second with 81 points while St. Anthony’s finished at third with 76 points.
The W.B. Bogahalanda Memorial Challenge Trophy for the Under-16 age category was won by St. Benedict’s College who collected 122 points. St. Joseph’s emerged runners-up with 83 points while St. Peter’s finished third with 77 points. The Mahesh Perera Challenge Trophy, in the Under-14 age category was awarded to St. Peter’s with 101 points. St. Joseph’s with 89 points finished second and St. Benedict’s finished third with 44 points.
The Athletic Quadrangular was not only celebrated among present boys. As every year the Old Boys too participated in several sports events and Surgeon Commodore Samaranayake Memorial Trophy for the overall champions was won by St. Peter’s College who ended up with 340 points. The Rev. Fr. Joe de Mel Memorial Challenge Trophy for the runners-up in Old Boys was awarded to St Benedict’s College who claimed 266 points while St. Anthony’s College, with 79 points, finished third.
The Saints Athletic Quadrangular comprises of four leading Catholic schools in Sri Lanka, namely St. Anthony’s College Katugastota, established in 1854, St. Benedict’s College Kotahena, established in 1865, St. Joseph’s College Darley Road, established in 1896, and St. Peter’s College Bambalapitiya, established in 1927. These four schools were first nurtured by the French, Irish, and Italian Missionaries, Benedictine Monks and the De LaSalle Brothers who arrived in Ceylon at that time to propagate Catholicism and eventually setup these institutions that stand tall and proud in the annals of education and sports in the country.
History says that the Quadrangular was mooted by the members of the Old Bens Sports Club. Invitation was extended to many schools to participate in the onset, but it was St. Anthony’s, St Joseph’s and St. Peter’s that accepted the invitation. Since then it has grown in stature, competition, and friendship.
The Saints Quadrangular goes back to 50 years of friendship and camaraderie where each school takes turn in hosting the event by playing cricket, basketball, soccer and rugby between the present boys and old boys. Athletics has always played a very important role in the history of the four schools and a great deal of prominence is given to nurture the sport and the track and field events. The four schools continue to make significant investments to athletics with coaches, techniques, nutrition, equipment, and scholarships for promising athletes. The Saints Athletics Quadrangular was revived after a lapse of almost 25 years by St. Peter’s in 2015 during which year St. Benedict’s celebrated its sesquicentennial.
This year’s event was a spectacular show where the four schools came together with the spirit of camaraderie to compete with one another at the St. Peter’s grounds. The event was hosted by St. Benedict’s with the active and energetic support of the management and leadership of the four schools and their old boys. Spirited and competitive athletes in the sprints, relay teams, jumping events and throwing events participated to show off their individual and team skills.
There were large numbers of old boys from the four schools cheering their athletes and participating in the old boy’s events. Rectors, Rev. Fr. Henry Bernard Wijetunge of St. Anthony’s, Rev. Fr. Travis Gabriel of St. Joseph’s, Rev. Fr. Trevor Martin of St. Peter’s and Rev. Br. Henry Dissanayake of St. Benedict’s graced the awards ceremony. The Chief Guest of the event was Old Ben Luke de Silva, founder member of the Old Bens Alumni, New York, USA.
The collective efforts of the four schools in organising this event was highly commended by those who attended on both days. The event received great support from Sri Lanka Athletics Federation officials, St. John Ambulance Cadet Services of St Benedict’s, sponsors and well-wishers, coaches, parents and all participating athletes. St. Anthony’s will host next year’s Saints Athletic Quadrangular in the cooler climes of Katugastota in Kandy.