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St. Benedict’s College which is celebrating its Sesquicentennial this year has seen an unparalleled feat by their athletes with consistently high performances right throughout 2015 culminating in winning the Sir John Tarbet Junior Public Schools Athletic Championship held in Anuradhapura from 15th – 18th September 2015, where over 6000 athletes from Government, Private and International Schools displayed their prowess. St. Benedict’s emerged Overall Champions with 79 points, St. Mary’s Chilaw Runners-Up with 62 points, Royal College Colombo third with 50 points and St. Joseph’s College Colombo fourth with 39 points.
Earlier in the year St. Benedict’s became the Colombo Zonal Champions beating all the schools in Colombo. St. Benedict’s obtained 143 points with Royal finishing Runners- Up with 71 Points. In the Sir John Tarbet Senior Public Schools Championships, SBC emerged Under 16 Group Champion and finished Overall Runners- Up. In this meet they broke 4 long standing records i.e Under 16- 4x100M (44.32 Sec) and 4x400M (3.31.05 Sec), Under 18- 4x100M (42.94 Sec) and 4x400M (3.22.15 Sec). in the Western Province Meet, SBC created 4 records and equalled one in the Under 17 events i.e. 4x100m (43.18 Sec), 4x400M 3.2.6 Sec) and in individual events- Mas. Supun Nimansha set a new record of 49.00 Sec in 400M, Avishka Dananjaya equaled the 110M hurdles record with 14.93 sec. The Benedictine star athlete Sahan Rajapaksha set a new record of 10.89 Sec in 100M. Both Sahan (100M) and Supun 400M) qualified for the World Youth Games 2015.
15 year old Sahan Rajapaksha is perhaps Sri Lanka’s best hope for International honours in the next decade. In early September 2015 he won the Gold Medal in Under 16 100M equalling the existing record in an international Athletic Meet- Thai Open Championships. It is the intention of every Benedictine to encourage and support this promising athlete to reach his full potential.
The resurgence of Athletics of SBC started during the tenure of Director, Rev. Bro. Granville Perera (2003-2012), who handpicked one of the national Coaches Mr. I.D. Premasiri to be the Head Coach , Mr. Premasiri , whose forte is in the track events has produced a host of young athletes who are excelling in track events. He is ably assisted by the Junior Coach and the Master-In-Charge Mr. Nuwan Abeywickrama, who himself is a former athletic Captain of the College. The man behind the scene however is the young and energetic Bro. Pravin Vaz, the sports Coordinator who works tirelessly without a fuss, in the true tradition of De La Salle Brothers.
The Benedictine Athletics team fared well in the National School Athletic Championship held recently as they secured 5 Gold medals, 2 Silver medals and 2 bronze medals. Young Benedictines also set two new meet records in Under 17- 4 X 100M and 4 x 400m events. Boys are confident of taking this form into next year and to achieve further glory.
