Abeysinghe and Rathnayake take home top prizes at Milo Awards
Sri Lanka’s swimming sensation Matthew Abeysinghe of Asian International School and Shivanthi Rathnayake of St. Joseph’s Girls’ School Kegalle were the lucky recipients of the two main awards on offer at the 20th annual Sri Lanka Schools Milo Colours Awards Ceremony.
The glittering awards ceremony, which saw a total of 501 students honoured for their sporting achievements during the year of 2012, was held on September 27, at the BMICH in Colombo.
Matthew, though, was not able to attend the ceremony on that day and his award was received by his mother Laura Abeysinghe. While the remaining 499 boys and girls were enjoying the most unforgettable day in their lives, Matthew was a few kilometers elsewhere, competing at the SLASU Senior and Junior National Swimming Championship, where he established three new national records. Matthew outshone national Under-19 cricketer Tharindu Kaushal of Devapathiraja Vidyalaya Ratgama and Rajasinghe Central Hanwella’s Milan Dissanayake, who excelled in athletics, to win the boy’s segment of the main award, the Most Outstanding Athlete.
Sprinter Shivanthi, who brought honour to Sri Lanka during the 15th Asian Junior Athletics Championship winning the gold medal in the Girls’ 400m event, won the girl’s segment of the main award. Her performances made Shivanthi the best choice ahead of Thilini Promodika, a national badminton player from Visakha Vidyalaya and swimmer Machiko Raheem of Asian International School.
Akila Dananjaya of Mahanama College Panadura, who crashed into the Sri Lanka Twenty20 team for the ICC Twenty20 Championship in 2012, won the Emerging Boy’s Athlete award. His rival in the segment of the contest, athlete Dulaj Madusanka of Pasyala Maha Vidyalaya could not offer Dananjaya any resistance.
In the girl’s segment of this category, swimmer Kimiko Raheem of Asian International School won the award. Like Matthew, Kimiko was busy competing at the SLASU event at the Sugathadasa Swimming Complex. Her father Ramzi Raheem received the award on her behalf. Meanwhile Royal College Colombo clinched the Milo Challenge Shield on offer for the school that produces the most number of colours winners.
The high profile sports awards ceremony saw the crème de la crème of the junior sports fraternity rewarded for their efforts in their respective fields of sport. A total of 33 school sports governing bodies affiliated to the Sri Lanka Schools Sports Council (SLSSC), the conductors of the event, entered their respective nominees for Milo colours. According to an SLSSC official, all 501 sportsstars were selected for their outstanding achievements at national and international competitions. All colours winners were picked based on their performances during 2012, with a majority of them being eligible for their feats at international level according to a SLSSC official. The main attraction of the day was the top 11 names who have been nominated for the main awards under four different categories, which are the Most Outstanding Athlete Boys’, the Most Outstanding Girls’, the Emerging Boys’ Athlete and the Emerging Girls’ Athlete. Overall, swimming produced most number of colours winners with 75 awards from the whole lot while 55 received colours in athletics. 31 each in badminton and rugby won colours while cricket ( 26), karate ( 23), judo ( 20), power/ weightlifting ( 19), football ( 18) and hockey ( 17) constituted the other sports with a high number of colours winners. The remaining 186 athletes who received colours are those who excelled in netball, rowing, table tennis, volleyball, basketball, elle, carrom, gymnastic, wrestling, chess, kabaddi, softball cricket, aerobic gymnastic, wushu, mountaineering, taekwondo, life saving, throwball, cycling, boxing, handball, tennis and squash.
The event was sponsored by Nestles’ energy drink product Milo for the 20th successive occasion. The ceremony was conducted by SLSSC with the patronage of the Ministry of Sports. Minister of Education Bandula Gunawardena was the Chief Guest at the event as Ganesan Ampalavanar, Managing Director of Nestle graced the occasion as the Guest of Honour. - NA