The fifth and the final day of the All Island Schools Games concluded today with a glamorous closing ceremony. The Chief Guests present for the closing ceremony was Minister M.H.Haleem and Minister Sarath Ekanayake. Western Province won the Games with 855 points followed by Central Province with 495 points.
Western Province’s Maris Stella emerged the victors of the games in the Boys’ category with a tally of 100 points and Walala A.Rathnayake of the Central Province won the Girls’ category with a tally of 150 points. The best male athlete of the field events went to U19 Boys’ Triple Jump event’s Chamal Kumarasiri who set a new record of the games. The best female athlete was D.M.Hasini Pamoda of the North Western Province.
The results in age groups were as follows.
U15 Boys’ – St.Maria Halaawatha (North western Province)
U15 Girls’ – Ladies College Colombo (Western Province)
U17 Boys’ – St. Benedicts College (Western Province)
U17 Girls’ – Walala A. Rathnayake (Central Province)
U19 Boys’ – Maris Stella Negombo (Western Province)
U19 Girls’ – Walala A.Rathnayake (Central Province)
U21 Boys’ – St. Maria and Joseph Vas Wenappuwa (Sabaragamuwa and North Western Provinces)
U21 Girls’ – Walala A Rathnayake (Central Province)
As the normal routine suggested the fifth consecutive day of the All Island Schools Games kicked off with the Field events that was scheduled to start at 8.30am. First events of the day were the U19 Pole Vault Boys, U21 Boys High Jump, U15 Boys Discuss Throw, U21 Long jump Girls’ finals. All these events started at the same time. The pole vault was won by K.Napthalijoisan with a height of 4.61m. This event was rather competitive as many of the jumps were above the average height normally attempted by the athletes. The U15 Discuss Throw however was won by J.Rishanan of the Eastern Province with a distance of 13.70m was followed by Sasanka Wijesimghe of Western Province and Chamod Hiruna of Sabaraamuwa Province in order, winning the respective second and third places. U21 High Jump victory was awarded to D.Chanuka of North Western Province for a height of 1.95m, while M.Wijesinghe of North Central Province won the U21 Girls’ Long Jump.
At the same period of the hour the 400m Hurdles semi finals were carried out in the grass track of the Bogambara grounds. This was run across age groups 17, 19 and 21 for both girls’ and boys’ where the fastest 48 athletes went through to the finals. Next the track was occupied for the U19 and U21 5000m where the athletes of the Central Province winning most of the awarded medals for the four races held.
The 200m finals took to the track next, after some toe to toe races to the finish line the U15 Boys was won by M.Perera of North Western Province followed by D.Kulasinghe and Uthendra Alahakoon in second and third places. In the Girls’ category Sandeepa Henderson of Western Province won the gold, Sachini Kaushalya and S.Fernando who won silver and bronze respectively.
U17 Boys’ 200m.
- Santhush Weerasinghe
- M. Yodhasinghe
- Suraj Dhinusha
U17 Girls’ 200m.
- Tharaka Divyanjalee
- Evanthi Emeshika
- Nethali Malpana
U19 Boys’ 200m.
- S.Dharshana
- C.Ranaweera
- D.Bandara
U19 Girls’ 200m.
- Y Dulanjalee
- S Yamick
- S kumarasinghe
U21 Boys’ 200m.
- L Minimuthu
- Yasiru Samodya
- Prabashwara De Soysa
U21 Girls’ 200m.
- O Udayangani
- Tharindi Heshani
- Raveesha Jeevani
The 800m finals were then run at a lesser pace than the previous 200m but not short of excitement where athletes put up some great performances. The U21 800m was won by P. Abeysinghe and C.Weerawardana. These were the two athletes who had the fastest timings at the respective event. The U19 victors were Sankalpa Bandara of Western Province and S. Kumarasinghe of Central Province. The rest of the results were as follows
U17 800m Boys’
- S.Karunarathna
- Thiran Ravishka
- C.Madushanka
U17 800m Girls’
- S.Herath
- K De Zoysa
- N Jayasinghe
The last events of the day were the 4x100m relays. After some breathtaking runs Walala A. Rathnayake, St. Benedict’s and Maris Stella won the first places of the All Island School Games relays. Trinity, Royal, St. Peter’s, St. Joseph Kegalle, Vishaka, Mahamaya won the third and the second places of the relays that were held just preceding the closing ceremony.
