Benedictines shine at Sir John Tarbat Senior Athletics Championship

Thursday, 18 September 2025 01:59 - - {{hitsCtrl.values.hits}}

Benedictine athletes excelled yet again in Sir John Tarbat Schools Senior Athletics Championship held at Diyagama Stadium from 8–11 September.

Despite missing a few athletes due to injury and illness, the Benedictines emerged a very close overall Runner-up to the eventual winners, Maris Stella College, Thimbirigaskatuwa. Lyceum International School was placed third, St. Joseph Vaz College, Wennappuwa fourth and Maris Stella College, Negombo coming in fifth place. Benedictines were also crowned Under 20 Champions, Track Events Champions, Relay Champions and Under 18 Runner-up.

The top performer among the Benedictines was Sri Lanka Junior Athlete Sasindu Jayasinghe, who set up a New Meet Record in the Under 18 – Triple Jump, with a leap of 15.41 meters. Sasindu is the son of Sanjaya Jayasinghe, who was a household name in Sri Lanka’s Triple Jump Arena for nearly two decades. The brilliant Under 20 Athlete Andrew Akash won the 110 meters Hurdles with a time of 14.31 seconds and ran impressively in the 4 x 100 meter relays. Among others, Jayamanne Twins Kalana and Kavindu (Under 20), Y. Thulastigan (under 16 – Silver in Putt Shot and Bronze in Discus Throw), Umal Perera (under 16 – fourth in 200 meters and Silver in 4 x 400 m relay) Senesh Gamage (Under 18 – Bronze in Triple Jump and Long Jump and Silver in 4 x 100 m and 4 x 400 m relays stood out. Credit should also go to others members of the Relay Teams in all three age segments, which helped the team to become Relay Champions.

The Benedictine Coaching and Support Staff is led by Nuwan Abeywickrema, who returned to the country the day before the meet started, after participating as the only Sri Lankan Coach in the Kids Athletics ‘Train The Trainers’ Course organised by World Athletics in Thailand. The excellent leadership, commitment and the hard work of the Coaching and Support Staff, has resulted in the consistent performances of the Benedictines this year. They earlier won the Colombo North, Colombo Zonal, Western Province and the All Island Ritzbury Schools Relay Championships.