Janak Sumanaweera wins 110 kilometre cycle race
by A. C. de Silva
CYCLING: Christmas day it was and Kahawatte area had something
to celebrate on the great day. It was the day that the area celebrated
the revival of competitive cycling in the district.
|
A winner comes home .... Janak Sumanaweera comes through to
win the 110-metre cycle race of Sapphire Sports Club at
Kahawatte on Christmas Day. |
Getting ready for the start .... Anthony Symonds (on left)
and Jayawardena - a veteran member of Sapphire Sports Club
giving instructions to the cyclists at Kahawatte. |
The Sapphire Sports Club inaugurated in the good old days where
cycling was one of the most looked forward to sports in the country in
1972, put all their resources together and re-started competitive
cycling and a 110 kilometre cycle race was held in Kahawatte.
The race turned out to be a tremendous success with 23 cyclists from
Ratnapura District facing the start. So, the determined officials of
Sapphire Sports Club got into the act of giving all cycling fans
something to remember for the future. It must be recalled that Sapphire
Sports Club had many cycling events in 1972-1973 and also in 1974 and
during that time some interesting races were held.
There was a period that Sapphire Club got inactive, but the revival
on Christmas Day of competitive cycling brought forth some future stars.
Janak Sumanaweera from Ratnapura won the 110-kilometre cycling event
in a timing of 2 hours 25 minutes, with Ratnasena Gunethi of
Embilipitiya second in 2 hours 25 minutes 2.0 seconds and Gamini Jayalal
also of Embilipitiya came third in hours 25 minutes and 3.0 seconds.
While Janak Sumanaweera came first in the race, it was quite
creditable that Ratnasena Gunethi - a veteran of 45 years ago came
second. The first three were awarded trophies.
Now Sapphire Sports Club will be selecting a team to represent the
club in national level events and the club is fortunate in having a
veteran cyclist P. Anthony Symonds to guide them. |
