Royal MAS Arena opens new chapter in sports

Royal MAS Arena – Sri Lanka’s first sporting arena for schools was ceremonially opened yesterday by the Prime Minister Ranil Wickremesinghe amidst a large gathering including the Minister of Education Akila Viraj Kariyawasam and Mayor of Colombo A.J.M. Muzammil.

Founders of MAS, Mahesh Amalean, Ajay Amalean and Shared Amalean donated 150 million rupees to built this sports arena. The 04th Engineering Regiment of Sri Lanka Army constructed the facility under the command of Lt. Gen. Jagath Jayasuriya.

The arena is designed to nurture and develop young sportsmen of the school and also will become a venue that benefits a range of sports in Sri Lanka. The Royal MAS Arena is designed to host tournaments for boxing, wrestling, karate, wushu, judo fencing, table tennis, gymnastics, chess and carrom. The Arena also features Sri Lanka’s first ever world class gym pit for gymnastics. The Arena has fully equipped locker rooms, customized lighting and maximum of 1,000 spectator capacity with completely retractable seats.

The chief guest of the occasion Prime Minister Ranil Wickremesinghe said, the best prize to the nation is education. The development of the country is depending on education. I’m expecting to introduce new educational system from May this year. I’m happy about facilities of this College and hope to upgrade facilities in other schools.

Guest of Honour Education Minister Akila Viraj Kariyawasam, Principal of Royal College B.A. Ariyarathna also spoke.