Royal’s Himantha is ‘Colombo Synergy Rugby Player of the Year 2018’
Dashing Himantha Hirushan of 2018 League champion’s Royal College had the honour of clinching the inaugural ‘ Colombo Synergy Rugby Player of the Year 2018’ at the awards ceremony organised by the Synergy Rugby Academy. The inaugural gala awards night was held at the Sasakawa Hall in Colombo last Tuesday.
At the awards ceremony, spearheaded by the Director of Synergy Rugby Academy, Nazim Ghaffoor, young and aspiring players of the academy were recognised of their commitment for rugby. This was in addition to the main attraction of the day, which was the ‘ Colombo Synergy Rugby Player of the Year’.
This award was based on the performances of the schoolboy players who represented the top schools in the concluded Singer Schools League, Milo Presidents Cup Knockout and the Schools Under- 20 Sevens competitions. Nominations were called in from all schools and at the end the list of players was pruned down by an independent selection panel that consisted of former top national players and officials.
The lengthy list was eventually cut down to 10 where the cream of top division school players remained. The list was finally brought down to three where Keshan Kavinda from St. Joseph’s College, Kenneth Wimaladasa from St. Peter’s College and the ultimate winner Hirushan were in it.
While Royal Number 8 Hirushan, a straightforward choice, won the top award, the Josephian back division player Kavinda grabbed the first runner-up trophy as Peterite skipper and f ullback Wimaladasa won the second runner-up trophy.
According to Ghaffoor, the awards night was mainly organised to celebrate the fifth year anniversary of Synergy Rugby Academy, which has been expanding over the years with more aspiring players. The academy almost has a number of players from schools where rugby is not an extracurricular activity.
“We have heard about other awards ceremonies but what we are attempting to establish here is a longstanding commitment towards rugby. We awarded the players of Synergy Rugby Academy after assessing their annual performances for the concluded year and in addition we will select and honour the best player among schools based on performances from all three schools rugby competitions. We not only looked at the playing abilities, also their other achievements at academic level and further accomplishments as well. The player not just received a trophy and a certificate, but something more that will further help his career,” Ghaffoor stated.
The awards ceremony was filled with entertainment acts where the students of the academy show pieced their abilities of singing, dancing and acting. The website of the Synergy Rugby Academy was launched at the same occasion by the chief guest, Nilfer Ibrahim, the present Sri Lanka Under-20 Sevens coach.
Well known rugby personalities namely Ibrahim ‘Tanker’ Hamid, Hisham Abdeen, Tony Amit, Nizam Jamldeen and Ranjith Chandrasekara also were present in addition to a large gathering of parents and supporters of the academy.
Synergy Rugby Academy was founded in 2013 with just 20 young players and at present the academy teaches over 100 young students about rugby by a well known and qualified group of coaches namely Rizwan Saldin, Malik Miskin and Irfan Lye.