St. Sylvestian Darshana wins silver at Asian Youth Athletic Championship….

It was a great moment for Darshana Rajapakse, an athlete from the Central Hills, when he made his school St. Sylvester’s College, his parents, and Kandy proud, by winning a Silver medal at the 1st Asian Youth Athletics Championship held in Doha Qatar a few days back.

It was a rare achievement for a Kandy schoolboy to win this award running in the company of top quality competitors. He was picked for IAAF World Youth Athletics when he came out with a rare performance clocking 53.81 at the trails.

Darshana Rajapaksha, who toured with six other athletes for this meet won a silver medal in the 400 meters hurdles with a timing of 52. 87 sec. This may be the first time a student from St. Sylvester’s has excelled in the Hurdles.

The first to do so from Kandy was none other than Trinity College’s Duncan White. Therefore, Darshan Rajapaksha could also been considered another Duncan White with this achievement.

Rajapakse is very thankful to the Chairman of the National Sports Council Snr.DIG (Rtd) Nimal Lewke and the Council member Sunil Gunawardena, who intervened and got the Chairman of National Selection Committee N. T. Jayasinghe to recommend seven athletes. Earlier they had picked only three out of the seven four were medal winners. It was this writer who first highlighted the talent about the Kandy athlete.

Initially, only three were picked, out of the seven due to lack of funds. Then came the sporting request from National Sports Council Chairman Nimal Lewke. The request was made because of the fact that these young athletes ate talented and are the future of Sri Lanka athletics and that they are sure to do well and it was encouragement what they needed.

When the suggestion was made, Minister of Sports Naveen Dissanayake agreed to release the necessary funds from the Sports Ministry who readily accepted the proposal and approved same.

Sri Lanka are yet to achieve professional status. A professional athlete requires a lot of help and encouragement to go places. Just because he or she is a student that doesn’t necessarily make them all professional athletes. A professional athlete would only need to worry about his performance and on ways to improve.

He would later on earn his living entirely through his commitments and performance at all levels. But many promising athletes not being picked for reasons best known to the officials which means some lapse in the system. So, for an athlete from a school like St. Sylvester’s College with poor or none of the facilities to qualify for the 400m hurdles event is an unbelievable achievement, as this school does not have a proper ground for athletes to practice or train in and around Kandy, especially an event like 400m hurdles.

One wonders whether St. Sylvester’s has sufficient hurdles even to help athletes during training. Speaking to me, Darshan said that he is very much thankful to his coach J.H. Weerakody a product of Vidyartha College, who did his best as a trainer, and also his father U.B. Lionel Rajapaksha currently teaching at the same school, His mother Prabashani Rajapaksha too is a teacher trainer. His eldest sister Sasipraba is in the Campus and the youngest sister Tharuki is a year one student. His family spends nearly Rs.25,000.00 for his nourishment, medical and other needs.

With this memorable achievement the school and old boys will hold a ceremony to felicitate him. It will be better if they can help this up and coming athlete with whatever the needs for his training in a more professional manner.

I think the best for this youth is guidance in the growth of his career.

This should encourage him and also those up and coming athletes for the future. Towards this we need to give at least a few more scholarships which would be an incentive to the others as well.

This school has earned a name in boxing, where they produced top boxers and only school in the world, which produced a boxer named Malcolm Bulner, who was picked to represent two countries at two different Olympic Games.

St. Sylvester’s began as a separate institution on 1st November 1940 with Rev. Fr. D. Robert. Perera O.S.B. as the principal. The college owed its inception to the foresight of his Lordship Bishop Bernardo Regno O.S.B. and Abbot Weerasinghe, the heads of the Sylvestro-Benedictine congregation.

They felt that a good catholic school in Kandy town was a prime need. Once St. Anthony’s College completely shifted to its home on the banks of the Mahaweli River at Katugastota. Rev father Robert was given the tremendous task of nurturing the new born school St. Sylvester’s. The school had made a name for itself in the field of education, not only in Kandy, but also throughout the length and breadth of the island. Starting with a mere 250 pupils and 12 teachers in 1940.

Father Robert was not expected to do big things at St. Sylvester’s. The buildings were not teeming with scholars, the laboratories were empty, and the libraries were without books. Even the facilities to run the school was not available.

It is said that he had to start with a bank over draft, but the picture of the institution now is very different and a fully fledged institution to full capacity, and financially stable, thanks to the efficient of past principals and the loyal old boys.

Today Thursday, All the seven athletes will be presented with a cash donation by Sports Minister Navin Dissanayake.

The Gold medalist will get Rs. 300,000 and the rest Rs. 200,000 each. A monthly allowance will also be granted. This is how sports should be promoted and up and coming sportsmen and women should be treated in this way to bring glory the country. Well done National Sports Council headed by Snr.DIG (Rtd) Nimal Lewke for inciting this.