N.U. ABDUL RAZZAK UDAYAR
COLOMBO : The All Island Schools Basketball Championship conducted by the Ministry of Education for the year 2023 was successfully completed in Jaffna recently.
All matches of this exciting tournament for the age groups of both male and female categories 0f Under 20 and Under 17 were held at the Old Park, the Ground of Jaffna Central College and the Court of Hindu College from 6th 10th 2023.
DS Senanayaka College Colombo and Mahamaya College Kandy have become Champions in the age group of under 20 Boys and Girls respectively. In this group, St Peters College and St. Thomas College got the 2nd and 3rd places respectively.
Meanwhile Holy Family Convent, Colombo 04 and Good Shepherd Convent of same location grabbed the honours by being 1st Runners up and 2nd Runners respectively. In the Under 17 category, it is Prince of Wales, Moratuwa who stole the limelight to be the Kings in basketball.
They beat Royal College Colombo in a contested Finals held on the grounds of Hindu College on 9th October 2023. The Second Runners up was Trinity College Kandy.
In the female group of Under 17, St. Joseph Balika Vidyalaya convincingly defeated the Convent of Our Ladies of Victories of Moratuwa. Holy Family Convent has shone in this category as well as they have become third in this All Island Tourney.
In the Under 20 Boys’ category D.S. Senanayake College of Colombo clinched the championship in a closely contested battle that was against high riding St Peters College. They beat by 6 points as the score card was read as 45-39 when the final whistle was blown.
For DS, this was the most memorable occasion since they got this achievement 15 years ago in 2007. In the Quarter Finals they beat St. Patrick’s College Jaffna by 41-17 and then they defeated Mahinda College Galle in the Semi Finals by 58-31. The winning team was led by Kisaja Pesamjith. Interestingly, DS got the icing on the cake as their star performer, Vice-captain, Isuru Weerakkodi has grabbed the award for the Best Player of this tournament.
The DS team is trained by the Head Coach Chaminda Sembukuttiarachchi and actively assisted by Assistant Coach Prasanna Hewage and Fitness Coach Nirmal Aravindu.
