Summa Navaratnam – a true legend

One of Sri Lanka’s highprofile sports personalities – Sumanthiran Navaratnam – passed away at the age of 98 on Thursday in Colombo. Fondly and famously known as ‘Summa’ Navaratnam, he was regarded as a legend in rugby as well as athletics, where he brought honour to Sri Lanka in both disciplines with utmost dignity.

In addition to being the finest track and field athlete and rugby player produced in Sri Lanka, Summa also was a well renowned rugby coach and a business executive. He was considered as the oldest living Sri Lankan sportsperson until his death.

Born on May 21, 1925 in Araly, Vaddukoddai, Jaffna, as the fifth child in his family, Summa established himself as a reputed, prominent and distinguished sportsman at Royal College, Colombo. He rose to fame as a school athlete at the age of 15 and became the youngest Royalist to be awarded athletics colours at his school.

At Royal, where he received primary and secondary education, Summa would contribute to his school as part of the 4x100 yards relay team that won both the Tarbat and Jefferson Challenge Cups in 1940 and 1941, under the captaincy of jumper and hurdler Owen Wambeek. He went on to captain the rugby and athletics teams of Royal, before earning stardom at national and international level.

Representing Royal College Old Boys’ Athletics in 1944, Summa won both sprint events – Men’s 100 yards and 200 yards, before becoming the national 100 yards champion at the National Amateur Athletics Association Championships held in 1944, 1946 and 1947. He was awarded the Wilton Bartleet Trophy for the best individual performance in these three years.

Summa was selected to represent then Ceylon, at the Indo-Ceylon Dual Athletic Meet in 1945, where he competed in the Men’s 4×100 yards relay event alongside Duncan White, R.E. Kitto and Basil Henricus. Despite his heroics as a track and field athlete, Summa was overlooked from the Sri Lankan contingent which participated at the 1948 and 1952 Olympics due to ‘nepotism with the selection process’ at that time.

However, Summa represented Ceylon at the 1950 British Empire Games, which later would become the Commonwealth Games, held in Auckland, New Zealand, where he competed in the Men’s 100 yards, Men’s 220 yards and in relay events. He finished fifth in the heats of Men’s 100 yards and failed to progress further. In the Men’s 200 yards event, he failed to start and thus was disqualified. He teamed up with fellow prominent track and field athletes Duncan White, John de Saram and Oscar Wijesinghe in the Men’s 4×110 yards event where Sri Lanka finished at fourth.

Summa was famously called as ‘the fastest man in Asia’ after clocking a record 10.04seconds at the India States Olympic Meet, held in Madras in 1953. It was also regarded as the fastest timing recorded on a grass track at Asian level then.

Afterwards Summa would begin his athletics coaching career at Royal College in 1953, before completely retiring from athletics in 1955 and switching his career as a professional rugby player.

Summa was part of the Ceylon rugby team which played in an unofficial match against the touring British Lions in 1950, where the visitors recorded resounding 44-6 win against the islanders. He was one of three native Sri Lankans along with Leslie Ephraims and Clair Roeloffsz to have been selected to play for the Ceylonese rugby team which was otherwise dubbed as an ‘All-white’ team. He also captained the Ceylonese Rugby & Football Club (CR&FC) and under his captaincy CR&FC won the Clifford Cup in 1954.

In 1972 Summa was elected as the President of the Ceylon Rugby Football Union. He was re-elected in 1974, to become the first President of the Sri Lanka Rugby Football Union, after the change of names.

Summa later went on to coach rugby teams of Royal College, Colombo Rugby Football Union and Sri Lanka. He later inaugurated the Summa Navaratnam Junior Rugby Academy, through which many young kids were nurtured to become top rugby players.

Apart from his sporting careers, Summa pursued his trade career as a Junior Trading Executive of Dodwell and Company in Colombo, before joining the Stores and Sales Department of Colombo Commercial Company. In 1989, he became General Manager of Consolexpo Corporation, before joining Ceylon and Foreign Trades PLC in 1993, and went on to serve the establishment as its General Manager for over 15 years before retiring.

Many top rugby players regard him as a good reader and educator of the game, while the entire fraternity regard Summa as a legend, a term the local athletic fraternity also equally take pride in calling him. Summa’s demise occurred at the age of 98, until when he led a ‘sporty’ life, being engaged with rugby at Royal College as an educator and coach.