YASARATNE GAMAGEA new set of office bearers chaired by

K H Kapila Kumara as the president, has been elected uncontested to the Sri Lanka Body Building and Fitness Federa-tion in their annual general assembly held at Institute of Sports Medicine audi-torium recently.

N S Jayawardena has been elected the secretary while Indika Fernando became the treasurer. A A Chandrasiri, M M R K Jayasundara, T N Fareed (vice presi-dents), D N A Gunasekara (assistant secretary), R C Abeywickckrama (assis-tant treasure) were also elected.

Ranil Perera, Thilak Rohana and Wara-pitiya have been included in the execu-tive committee.

In order to have a better administra-tion in the association and to conduct tournaments efficiently, some new offi-cials were given appointments at a gath-ering held at Otters Club auditorium

recently. Speaking at the occasion, SLBBFF president Kapila Kumara said that necessary arrangements are already

underway for 2014 Asian Body Building Championship which will be held in Sri Lanka with bodybuilders participating

from 29 countries. He also requested the offi-

cials and newly appointed offi-cials to work as a team to give the competitors a better battle ground.

The SLBBFF also announced its events plan for this year. Accordingly the top Top 20 Body Building Championships will be held on April 28 at Uyanwatta Stadium, Matara.

May 19 will be the day for the selection of the novices fit-ness champion while a coach-ing course has been scheduled on June 8 at the Sports Medi-cine Unit. The fitness and body building championship for schoolboys will be held in July.

Preparing contestants for the World Fit-ness Championship which is to be held in Ecuador in November, is also in pro-gress.

A diploma course for those interested in conducting fitness centres will be initi-ated in December this year.

Commenting on the doping tests, Kapila Kumara said that a thorough medical test will be carried out for every player prior to the events. Players, coach-es have been strictly advised regarding the matter, he added.

New officials: K H Kapila Kumara (President ), N S

Jayawardena (Secretary), Indika Fernan-do (treasure) A A Chandrasiri, H M R K Jayasundara, T N Fareed (vice presi-dents) D N A Gunasekara (assistant Secretary), R C Abeywickckrama (assis-tant Treasure), Ranil Perera, Thilak Rohana, Warapitiya (executive commit-tee)

Singer League 2011 Rugby Awards ceremony

The SLBBFF President K. H. Kapila Kumara (centre) revealing their annual plan to the media at a press briefing recently. SLBBFF Secretary N.S. Jayawardena (left) and Treasurer Indika Fernando (right) also look on.

Bro. NIMAL GuRuSINGHEIt is a million dollar question. A

cricketer to play continuously for 23 years in international cricket is not an easy task.

Also to speak of an average of over 50 is a good achievement. During his career he has reached many mile stones. For him to score 100 centuries in international crick-et is another land mark of his life. He also holds the record of scoring 200 runs in One Day International.

Now I would like to analyze how he could go on for such a long time with his head high and delivering goods as often as possible. As an ardent cricket fan, I admire him due to the following reasons.

1.He is a master technician. This is a batsman who plays his strokes with correct techniques, so he could stay at the wicket and play long and tedious innings.

2.He has tremendous concentra-

tion powers. He does not throw his wicket in a hurry. I do not think the present day cricketers have such concentration powers.

3.He does not chase after balls, allows the balls to come to his bat when you play in that manner, there is very little margin to error.

4.He believes in milking the bowling and getting ones and twos. He does not depend only on sixes and boundaries. Some of the mod-ern day cricketers always try to score, fours and sixes. Then they lose their concentration and throw their wicket.

5.He treats every ball according to its merit. He rarely plays pre-meditative shots.

6.Very often he does not throw his wickets. Opponents have to work hard and get his wicket.

7.When ever he gets a lose ball it is dispatched to the boundary.

Every bad ball gets its deserving punishment.

8.Often he uses his rick, he never tries to hit the ball hard. That is the hall mark of a good player.

9.Keeps himself often fit. Very seldom he gets injured. Even if he is injured its for a very short period.

10.Never loses his concentration. Always puts his heart and soul plays remarkable innings.

11.Foot work is perfect. Always uses his feet to play his shots.

12. His running between the wickets is excellent. Some times his brilliant running between wick-ets has destroyed the bowlers length.

13. He knows how to read every bowlers arm. So he knows how to handle every bowler.

14. When he comes to the pitch to start an innings there is no rush of blood in him. Slowly and steadily he builds an innings. That is the

secret of his playing so many mem-orable and long innings.

15. He could adjust himself to any conditions. He has shown his colours all over the world.

16. Often Tendulkar tries to speak to his partner and safeguards his wicket. That helps his team, his partner and himself.

17. He always plays for his team. That helps him to remain in the team for a long time.

18. No dispute with any captain. He could play with any skipper. He gives his hundred percent support to all his captains. That makes him an important man in the team.

19.The world respects him as a world class batsman.

20. This cricket legend, always has mutual understanding with Indian Cricket Board. He never has any disputes with the Board Offi-cials, so he could carry on over a decade.

DN page 22 t h u r s d a y , a p r i l 1 9 , 2 0 1 2sport

Printed and Published by The Associated Newspapers of Ceylon Ltd., at No. 35, D.R.Wijewardene Mawatha, Colombo 10, on Thursday, April 19, 2012

The picturesque Fox Hill track

Why Sachin Tendulkar could remain in the International Cricked for such a long period?

SuPuN PERERAThe curtain raiser for the ‘A’ Division

schools rugby season for year 2012 will kick off tomorrow where the traditional rivals, St Joseph's College Colombo and St Peter's College Bambalapitiya will meet in the 42nd edition of the series and the moti-vation is Fr. Basil Wiratunga Memorial shield.

Petes will be the hosts this year and they are the current holders of the shield where they pipped Joes last year by 23-17 in a thrilling encounter at Royal College Sports Complex.

This year, the Josephians will be led by fourth year coloursman 6ft 3inches tall burly no. 08 Yohan Keyser and he will be the danger man for any opposition; where he plays a ferocious brand of rugby in the lose.

Up in the front row will be the two robust props Ryan Fernando and Goshen Jackson while young Tariq Salih or Shag-gonne De Soysa will come in as the hooker. The second rowers will be towering Jason Melder and terrific forward Suchintha Udumalagala.

Fast breaking flankers Chirath Pieris and fresher Shehan Bopearachchi will add more vigour and vitality to the heavy and mobile pack from Darley road.

The Halves combination will be Shamil-ka Kurumbulapitiya and Rehan Thiyagaraja and they will be supported by hard running three quarters Vismitha Pieries, Kasun Mendis and Dinesh Lakshan. The last line of defence will be manned by Janitha Shanaka.

The Petes on the other hand will be led by fifth year coloursman Danushka Ranjan; the daring three quarter who is mostly unstoppable when he has the oval ball in possession.

His deputy will be that dynamic fly half Dulaj Perera who had been a major force behind petes success in the past couple of years. Ranjan and Perera will be supported by equally penetrative three quarters in Dilanka Perera, Banuka Pieries and Kris-han Antony. They will certainly have the bulldozing Josephian forwards in business very often.

This game will be of special importance to some of the renowned Josephian stal-warts of yesteryear where they will cer-tainly have the opportunity in admiring their offspring in action in this match. Flanker Shehan Bopearachchi is the son of Nishantha Bopearachchi the granite hard flanker who led St Joseph's in 1988 and later turned out for Havies,CH and Sri Lanka with distinction.

Hooker Tariq Salih is the son of “Man of Steel” Imran Salih; who turned out for St Joseph's in 1982 and later for CH and wore the national colours. Captain Yohan Keyser is the son of Soccer stalwart Keith Keyser who turned out for Darley Road school in 1991.

Centre Three quarter Vismitha Pieries is the son of Sampath Pieries who turned out for St Joseph's in 1986. Flanker Chirath Pieries and Scrumhalf Shamilka Kurumbu-lapitiya are the sons of Majintha Pieries and Shantha Kurumbulapitiya respectively who were renowned for their Basket ball prowess in 1980's for Darley Road school.

The inaugural Joe-Pete rugby encounter has taken place way back in 1955 (the year rugby was introduced to St Joseph's) and the match was won by St Peter's. Josephi-ans have first tasted victory in 1958 under C.I.Rajaratnam (13-03) at Darley Road. Until the year of 1963 the match was played in order to have a fellowship among the students and the old boys of both these institutions and in 1963 an Old Pete named Carlo Martyn introduced a trophy and it was played for Carlo Martyn trophy till 1968.

The Rev.Fr. Basil Wiratunga Memorial shield was introduced by the St Peter's Col-lege Old Boys union in appreciation of their Rector/Principal in the very same year of 1968 and St Joseph's had the hon-our of annexing this shield in it's inaugural year under late Shiraz Fernando. The hero for St Joseph's in this encounter was that star sportsman Brian Obeysekera who had scored three brilliant tries which had sent the Bambalpitiya school back pedaling. To-date Obeysekera continues to render a yeoman service to his Alma Mater in advi-sory capacity.

The biggest Josephian victory was recorded way back in 1999 under Laksitha Guneratne where the Josephians defeated the Petes by 27 points to 03. Incidentally this was the last occasion where the Jose-phians annexed this silverware and since then the Peterites have been dominant for the last 12 years.

The biggest victory for Petes was in 2007 under scrumhalf Ranuka Jayasinghe who thrashed the Josephians with a record score of 101 to 05.

The teams: St Joseph's: Goshen Jack-son, Tariq Salih, Ryan Fernando, Suchintha Udumalagala, Jason Melder, Shehan Bope-arachchi, Chirath Pieries, Yohan Keyser (Captain), Shamilka Kurumbulapitiya and Rehan Thiyagaraja, Vishmitha Pieries, Kasun Mendis, Hasiru Gunawardena, Dinesh Lakshan, Janitha Shanaka. Sunan-da Fernando (Coach), Prasantha Ranweera(M I C)

St Peter's: Chathuranga Mendis, Shenal Abeysekera, Johann Rodrigo, Viraj Munas-inghe, Saranga Dulan, Royston Jackson, Ravindra Indrakumar, Anuradha Herath, Ruchira Perera and Dulaj Perera, Dilanka Perera, Danushka Ranjan (Captain), Bha-nuka Pieries, Krishan Antony, Kevin Dick-son. Colin Denish (Coach), Sunil Aponso (M I C).

Referee: Aruna Jayasekera.

The Saints scrum down

The skipper of the segment one - B Divi-sion runners up of 2011, DS Senanayake college, receiving the award.

The skipper of the segment one - B Division champions of 2011, Vidyartha college, receiv-ing the award.

The skipper of the segment one - A Divi-sion runner up of 2011, Isipatana college, Prasad Devinda receiving the award.

The skipper of the Singer League segment one - A Division champions of 2011, Royal college skipper Shehan Pathirana receiving the award from Singer Group of companies cEO Asoka Peiris. Pictures by Sulochana Gamage

cHINTHANA WASALA

A record number of par-ticipants (221) will vie for honours at the home of the Sri Lanka Military Acade-my in Diyatalawa on Satur-day. when the hills will reverberate to the roar of fine tuned engines at the 20th Fox Hill Supercross, organized by Sri Lanka Association of Racing Driv-ers and Riders (SLARDAR) under the able leadership of its new President Mahesh Gammanpila and the Mili-tary Academy.

The creme of Sri Lanka's motor racers, will have to

face tough opposition from talented foreign riders and drivers in the two most entertaining events, the SLGT upto 3500CC event and the Group MX - Racing Motocross bikes upto 250CC event.

The super cars event, the seven-time INRC Rally Champion and Two time runner- up and Asia Zone Champion Naren Kumar will be seen in action against last year's champi-on Pasindu Peiris, nine-time Fox Hill Champion Aravinda Premadasa, Dinesh Deheragoda, Shafraz Junaid and Ashan

De Silva, promising a spec-tacular show.

In the Motocross Bikes upto 125 cc (2T) and upto 250 cc (4T) event, the Lan-kan superstar and five-time Fox Hill champion rider Gayan Sandaruwan will contest against former FIM Asian Motocross Super-cross Champion and last year's Fox Hill champion rider Tomoya Suzuki, She-han C. Adikari, the six time Fox Hill Supercross cham-pion Ananda Wedisinghe and his son Ken Wedising-he.

Indian rider K.P. Aravin-dh will be in action on Lan-

kan soil after he missed a few races due to a shoulder injury. The latest addition to the Lankan racing track from India, Harith Hoah will also join his TVS team members.

A new addition to the racing arena, all rounder and former under-19 crick-eter Sachith Pathirana will test his abilities in the SL-A Cars upto 1050 cc event against veterans and more experienced drivers Donald Buultjens, Yoga Perera and Ajith Keerthi. Pasindu Pei-ris, Upulwan Serasinghe, Ashan Silva and Dilan Seneviratne will battle it

out for the top podium spot in the SL - H Cars upto 1600 cc event.

This year's Fox Hill Supercross comprises 13 motor cars and 12 motor cycle events including the championship races which will be taken into account in awarding the CEAT-SLARDAR Championship trophies to the country's top drivers and riders at the end of the 2011 racing sea-son.

SLARDAR president Mahesh Gamanpilla said seven teams will be in con-test this year, battling it out for team championship.

Record number of entries received for Fox Hill Supercross 2012

New SLBBFF committee reveals events planBelgium's Kim Clijsters

announced on Tuesday that she will bypass the clay season, including the French Open, in the hope of recovering from a hip injury in time for the grass season and the Olympic Games. “The rehabilitation process fol-lowing Kim's hip injury is going more slowly than expected,” read a statement on the former world number one's website.

“Kim will not be able to return to training with the ball for three weeks.” Clijsters said: “My current physical condition will not enable me to go to Roland Garros in optimal shape.

“However, I cannot wait to begin the long period of prepa-

ration for the grass season, with Wimbledon and the Olympic Games my principal objectives.” Clijsters intends to make her return to action at the Rosmalen tournament in the Netherlands, which begins on June 17.

The 28-year-old sustained the injury during a match at the Miami Masters last month. Her withdrawal from the tourna-ment prompted the Belgian media to speculate that she might be about to call time on her career, but Clijsters, who quit the sport in 2007 only to return two seasons later after having a child, “vigorously denied” having any thoughts about retirement. AFP

Clijsters gives up on clay season