sports
We are yet in the embryo stage of introducing a set of very young students who are undergoing a training programme referred to as “Tennis 10s”. Our team took part in the first 2 tournaments where talent was being identified before they are introduced to tennis proper.
10 of our junior students from Havelock’s Primary who are being trained in the coloured ball as applicable to beginners of tennis, took part in the “Scool Tens” Tennis Tournament conducted by the SLTA playing section.
7 year old Navindu Bandara won 5 matches in the Round Robin and reached the semifinal in the Orange ball category.
We did exceptionally well in Table Tennis despite the handicap of not having a suitable location for practice until the latter part of the year.
It is with sense of pride that we record that we became Champions in the under 18 All Island Inter School Tournament held in June 2016. We are now proud to be promoted to the “A” division for the first time.
§ One of young lads Ishaan Faleel represented the School in the under 8 category and became the Western Province Champion. He is now regarded as the third ranked player in the Country in that age group. In the recent all island Novices Championship he became the Runner-up in the under 8 age group. He also became the Champion in the same age group category in the All Island Intermediate Private and Semi Government Schools Table Tennis Championship.
§ Lithmina Mahanama who has continuously done well for Wesley is now among the first four ranked players in the under 15 age group in the Country.
We are indebted to our Coaches and the Master in charge for the dedicated service rendered.
Adeetha Siriwardena Excels in Swimming
Born in February 2008, Adeetha Siriwardena started his swimming career at Wesley College by competing in the 2014 College Inter House Championship which was held in November 2014. He was the youngest swimmer to participate in the age group category and became under 9 Wesley College Age Group Champion defeating swimmers who are 3 years elder to him. He has five under 9 College Swimming Records under his name. During the years 2014/2017, he has won more than 60 medals& number of trophies in numerous Swimming Championships in the country and abroad. Details of his achievements are as follows;
Beginners Age Group Swimming Championship – January 2014
Member of the College under 9 relay team which won the 3rd place in the 4×50M Medley
- Relay and 4×50M Free Style Relay.
Wesley College Inter HouseSwimming Championship – November 2014
- Place in 100M Individual Medley (new school record)
- Place in 200M Individual Medley (new school record)
- Place in 50M Back Stroke (new school record)
- Place in 50M Butterfly Stroke (new school record)
- Place in 25M Back Stroke (new school record)
- Place in 25M Butterfly Stroke
- Place in 50M Free Style
- Won the trophy for the best swimmer in the under 9 age group category
All Island Invitational Age Group Swimming Championship- February 2015
1stPlace in 100M Individual Medley
Member of the College under 9 relay team which won the 2nd place in the 4×50M Medley
Relay and 4×50M Free Style Relay.
All Island Open Junior Novices Swimming Championship-Takiko Yoshida Challenge Trophy – June 2015
2ndPlace in 100M Individual Medley
2ndPlace in 25M Back Stroke
2ndPlace in 25M Breast Stroke
3rdPlace in 25M Butterfly Stroke
Member of the College under 9 relay team which won the 1stplace in the 4×50M Medley
Relay.
All Island Open Free Style Swimming Championship- August 2015
2ndPlace in 50M Free Style
2ndPlace in 100M Free Style
2ndPlace in 200M Free Style
Member of the College under 9 relay team which won the 1st place in the 4×50M Free Style Relay.
Austasia Open Swimming Championship September 2015
2ndPlace in 100M Individual Medley
2ndPlace in 25M Back Stroke
3rd Place in 25M Butterfly Stroke
Thurstan College Aquatic Club Annual Gala – December 2015
1stPlace in 25M Backstroke
1stPlace in 4×25M Individual Medley
2ndPlace in 25M Butterfly Stroke
3rd Place in 4 x 50MMedley Relay open event.
Sri Lanka Schools All Island Novices Aquatic Championship – February 2016
1stPlace in 50M Backstroke
2ndPlace in 200M IndividualMedley
4thPlace in 50M Butterfly Stroke
National Age Groups Relay Championship – May 2016
Member of the College under 11 relay team who won the 8th place in 200M Medley Relay
Wesley College Inter HouseSwimming Championship – May 2016
1st Place in 200M Individual Medley (new school record)
1st Place in 50M Back Stroke (new school record)
2ndPlace in 50M Butterfly Stroke
National Pentathlon Swimming Championship – May 2016
- Achieved qualify timing of 6:37:48 placed overall 18th competing with national swimmers who are 2 years elder to him.
National Intermediate Age Group Swimming Championship – July 2016
Member of the College under 11 relay team who won the 8th place in 200M Medley Relay.
Inaugural Wesley- S.Thomas’ Swimming Championship –August 2016
1st Place in 200M Individual Medley (new school record)
1st Place in 50M Back Stroke (new school record)
2ndPlace in 50M Butterfly Stroke
- Won the trophy for the best swimmer in the under 9 age group category
Thanyapura Super Sprint – Phuket, Thailand.October-2016
- Place in 100M Individual Medley (Short Course)
- Place in 25M Butterfly Stroke (Short Course)
- Place in 50M Butterfly Stroke (Short Course)
- Place in 25M Back Stroke (Short Course)
- Place in 200M Individual Medley
- Place in 50M Back Stroke
- Place in 50M Butterfly Stroke
- Place in open elimination Race
- Won the runners up trophy for the best swimmer in the under 8 age group category
Thurstan College Aquatic Club Annual Gala – December 2016
1stPlace in 50M Backstroke
1stPlace in 4×25M Individual Medley
1stPlace in 50M Butterfly Stroke
- Place in 4 x 50m medley relay open event.
- Won the trophy for the best swimmer in the under 9 age group category.
Princess Mermaid Novices Swimming Championship-February 2017
3rdPlace in 50M Butterfly Stroke
1st Place in 50M Back Stroke
1st Place in 100M Back Stroke
1st Place in 100M Individual Medley
3rd Place in 4 x 50M medley relay open event.
SLASTOA Short Course Swimming Championship-March 2017
1stPlace in 25M Free Style
1stPlace in 25M Backstroke
1stPlace in 25M Butterfly Stroke
2ndPlace in 25M Breast Stroke
2ndPlace in 4×25M Individual Medley
- Won the trophy for the best swimmer in the under 10 age group category.
Austasia Open Swimming Championship – March 2017
1stPlace in 25M Free Style
1stPlace in 25M Backstroke
1stPlace in 25M Butterfly Stroke
1stPlace in 25M Breast Stroke
1stPlace in 4×25M Individual Medley
- Won the trophy for the best swimmer in the under 11 age group category.
National Age Group Swimming Championship -June 2017
1stPlace in 100M Back Stroke
2ndPlace in 50M Back Stroke
5thPlace in 200M Individual Medley
Sri Lanka Schools All Island Aquatic Championship -June 2017
1st Place in 50M Backstroke
2ndPlace in 50M Butterfly Stroke
It is indeed heartening to report that our Swimming made major strides during the year 2016 although Swimming is relatively new to Wesley.
For the first time we conducted a dual contest where our Juniors were pitted against the very strong Thomian team who had ample experience. We won this event convincingly bringing pride to the School. This event was organized by the Class of 93 lead by Asith Siriwardena.
Besides the above, our performance for the year included the following exceptional performances
§ Adeetha Siriwardena was placed 3rd in Public School Meet in the under 9 category.
§ Akash Kumaresan was placed 3rd in the same meet in the under 13 category.
§ Shamod Athulathmudali was placed 3rd in the under 19 category of the same meet.
§ College swimmers took part in recent National Intermediate Swimming Championship held at Sugathadasa Stadium.
Athik Ahmeer won 2 gold and 3 Silver medals in the under 17 age category.
Keshan Bandara won 1 Silver in the under 11 category.
Several others came within the 1st 8 in their respective events.
A surfeit of very young students have shown interest in Chess where facilities for practices have been arranged in both the Borella Campus & Havelocks Primary.
Two brothers Rahel and Ravish Karunarathne did exceptionally well to be selected to participate at National level. Rahel came up with an extraordinary performance by winning five out of six games at National Level.
Towards the latter part of last year our Basketball team began in earnest to participate at competitive level. In the current year we continuously participated in the tournaments conducted by the Schools Basketball Association and for the first time began to record victories. One of the foremost needs was met recently when our Basketball court was re-surfaced to enable the teams to have a better facility for practice as well as to be competitive.
Due to the combination of several factors Badminton has now become a well organized and efficiently managed sport at Wesley. The sheer dedication of the Coach, and the Teacher in charge together with a committed and enthusiastic bunch of Boys enabled the 4 age group teams to elevate from the “E” division to “C” division.
In the tournaments conducted in the latter part of 2016 our under 13 team became Joint Champions while our under 14 and under 16 teams became champions in the Western Province tournament conducted by the institute of Sport Science. Earlier our under 19 team was placed 3rd in the “C” division in the All Island Tournament.
It is with much regret that we place on record that our Badminton Teacher in charge fondly referred to as “Roshini Teacher” bid goodbye at the end of 2016 in pursuant of greener pastures. Her love and dedication will be missed by the Badminton circuit especially by the children under her charge.
Sahil scored 142 runs against S.Thomas’ at the traditional Under 19 Cricket encounter in July 2021. This equaled the Schools’ batting record held by our own old Wesleyite and one of Ceylon’s finest batsman the legendary Cricketer Mahadevan Sathasivam in 1936.
The historic series between Wesley and S.Thomas’ is played for the ‘Mahadevan Sathasivam Trophy’ since 2000.
We concluded our 2016 / 17 Cricket Season on a bright note when we outplayed Kingswood College in our final match which we convincing won on 1st innings. Although our performance in our traditional games was reasonably satisfactory, the overall performance for the Season left much to be desired in that our performance in the Tournament matches was well below expectations. We append below some highlights of the Season.
§ In our centenary Cricket match against St. Josephs’ College played at Campbell Park, our 2 down bat Thilina Perera broke the record for the highest individual score in the series against St. Josephs’ by scoring 160 runs. Incidentally, we nearly won the match when we had 5 St. Josephs’ wickets for 6 runs in their second innings ending the day at 40 runs for 6 wickets, having yet to clear the deficit as Wesley led in the 1st innings.
§ Movin Subasinghe was the most prolific scorer having accumulated well over 600 runs for the season, in addition to his all-round performance in capturing 35 wicket during the season.
§ Shenal Dangalle who is yet under 17 had an impressive season bagging over 40 wickets including an 8 wicket haul against St. Benedicts in the 1st innings.
§ Wicket Keeper Thisuraka Akmeemana scored over 500 runs during the season and had 30 victims behind the stumps.
§ Thilina Perera scored the only century of the season.
§ Shenal Dangalle was picked for the Schools under 19 Squad in preparation for its forthcoming Australian Tour.
§ With future development of Cricket in mind, we have revamped the structure and streamlined the coaching process and personnel. Besides, we have also placed greater emphasis on development of junior Cricket beginning with the Academy.
Junior cricket
As is customary all our junior teams fared reasonably well. The under 15 and under 17 teams recorded a string of victories to reach the knock out stage before being eliminated in the quarter finals. Of the 3 teams we fielded in the under 13 age category 2 teams reached the second round.
We concluded our 2016 / 17 Cricket Season on a bright note when we outplayed Kingswood College in our final match which we convincing won on 1st innings. Although our performance in our traditional games was reasonably satisfactory, the overall performance for the Season left much to be desired in that our performance in the Tournament matches was well below expectations. We append below some highlights of the Season.
§ In our centenary Cricket match against St. Josephs’ College played at Campbell Park, our 2 down bat Thilina Perera broke the record for the highest individual score in the series against St. Josephs’ by scoring 160 runs. Incidentally, we nearly won the match when we had 5 St. Josephs’ wickets for 6 runs in their second innings ending the day at 40 runs for 6 wickets, having yet to clear the deficit as Wesley led in the 1st innings.
§ Movin Subasinghe was the most prolific scorer having accumulated well over 600 runs for the season, in addition to his all-round performance in capturing 35 wicket during the season.
§ Shenal Dangalle who is yet under 17 had an impressive season bagging over 40 wickets including an 8 wicket haul against St. Benedicts in the 1st innings.
§ Wicket Keeper Thisuraka Akmeemana scored over 500 runs during the season and had 30 victims behind the stumps.
§ Thilina Perera scored the only century of the season.
§ Shenal Dangalle was picked for the Schools under 19 Squad in preparation for its forthcoming Australian Tour.
§ With future development of Cricket in mind, we have revamped the structure and streamlined the coaching process and personnel. Besides, we have also placed greater emphasis on development of junior Cricket beginning with the Academy.
It must be mentioned that the relentless and untiring efforts of the Master in charge Mr. Tony has enabled football not only to survive but also to produce results. It has certainly been a battle to sustain the interest of boys especially at senior level. The attendance at Junior level is exceptionally good.
During the year under review, our senior team came up with a sensational performance by becoming the 7-a-side champions in the most prestigious tournament in Schools Soccer circuit the Zahira Sevens. The other achievements are tabulated below.
St. Joseph’s Tournament
Under 19 – Shield Champions
Under 17 – Plate Runners Up
Under 15 – Cup Semi Finalist
Under 13 – Plate Quarter Finalist
Ananda 7’s Tournament
Under 17 – Plate Runners Up
Lyceum 7’s Tournaments
Under 13 – Cup Runners Up
The much awaited rugger season began with our first match in the Singer Sri Lanka School Rugby Tournament against Trinity College Kandy, which reminded us of the period long years ago when Trinity used to defeat us comprehensively as we had taken to the game relatively later.
However, our team made us forget this initial debacle by recording a string of victories thereafter including, the Sir Oliver Goonethilake Memorial Trophy by defeating St. Thomas College Mt. Lavinia. Our performance in the matches played thus far are reflected below:
Under 20 Singer League Rugby Tournament 2017
24th February 2017 – Wesley Vs Trinity – 64 / 24 – (Lost)
3rd March 2017 – Wesley Vs Prince of Wales – 28 / 10 – (Won)
12th March 2017 – Wesley Vs S. Thomas’ – 23 / 18 – (Won)
17th March 2017 – Wesley Vs Science – 36 / 10 – (Won)
24th March 2017 – Wesley Vs Zahira – 32 / 29 – (Won)
28th April 2017 – Wesley Vs St. Joseph’s – 23 /14 – (Won)
6th May 2017 – Wesley Vs St. Peter’s – 26 / 14 – (Won)
At the end of the 1st round in the League, Wesley was placed second only to Trinity among the 13 “A” Division Schools participating in the league. In the second round which commenced towards the end of April 2017. Wesley begun in grand style by defeating St. Joseph’s and St. Peters College. However we lost the balance two games against Royal College and Isipathana College and ended the league in 4th place in the A Division “super 8”. Overall our performance for the season was the best since 2013.
During the intervening period between the first and second round we played against Kingswood College in Kandy for the Blaze Trophy which we lost by 1 point. It will be recalled that this trophy is presently in our custody having beaten Kingswood by the highest margin in the series in 2016.
Here again Athletics which was neglected for many years in the recent past has now been revived thanks to the effort made by the Master in charge Mr. Anjana Ratnayake. For the very first time in the traceable past as many as 43 athletes took part in the District competition.
In the recently concluded Tarbet Cup All Island competition 10 boys from our team reached therespective qualifying times. Although it is too premature to aspire for places in the Public
Schools circuit, it is a matter of time when our boys will begin to make the grade if the current
trend continues.
The resurgence began with the conduct of a grand and colorful sports meet befitting the image of the School. Our former Principal Dr. Shanthi Macleland was the Chief Guest in 2016 while Mr. Asela Happugalle did the honours in 2017 meet.
Football
It must be mentioned that the relentless and untiring efforts of the Master in charge Mr. Tony has enabled football not only to survive but also to produce..
WRESTLING
Wrestling was introduced at Wesley in 2023. At the wrestling federation in Torrington,
practices are taking place. Students participate in school wrestling tournaments.
