Following the defeat in the Public Schools in Year 2015, S.Thomas’ College Mount Lavinia has most certainly buckled their shoes to gain consecutive victories throughout this year at both Public school and National school level matches, emerging as the un-defeated inter-school Tennis champions of the year. The successful Team for this year consists of dynamic, multi-talented and hardworking players led by Captain Sebastian Sansoni, Vice-Captain Viranka Fernando and Secretary Avindra Perera.
The Thomians started their winning streak at the Under 19 Public Schools Championship by defeating Colombo International School in the group stage. They went on to outdo Ananda College in the semi-finals and later emerged as champions of the tournament by trouncing CIS again at the finals. Although the 1st and 2nd doubles were lost by the pairs Sebastian Sansoni &Dulitha Ellawala and SenalHemakumara&ThuvaraganSabesan, VirankaFernando(6-0,6-2), Vihan Herath (6-2,6-0) and Avindra Perera (6-1,6-2) stepped up to be game changers by winning their matches to lead the team to victory after 27 years.
The National School Games Tennis Championship held thereafter in early September witnessed the participation of over 20 schools competing to be crowned as the under 19 National champions. S. Thomas’ College paved their way to the Finals of the boys’ championship, defeating St. Joseph’s College Colombo in the quarter Finals and Ananda in the Semis. The Finals saw the Thomians taking on St. Peters (for the fourth consecutive year) and Viranka Fernando won the 1st singles for the Thomians (6-0,6/2) followed by Avindra Perera who won the 2nd single (6-2,6-0) and successfully defend the prestigious silverware for the Thomians for the third time in four years! The Player of the Tournament title was also won by Viranka Fernando.
The School by the Sea added another pearl to their crown by emerging victorious over their arch rivals Royal College at the annual Royal Thomian encounter for the EFC Pereira Memorial Trophy. Although the double matches were not favourable for the Thomians which resulted in consecutive defeats, all three singles were won by Viranka Fernando (9/4), Vihan Herath (9/8) and Avindra Perera (9/2) respectively, which led the team to bring home the trophy after a lapse of one year. With victory after victory under their belt, the team has remained undefeated throughout the year having played against all the competitive schools in the island, ending the season by beating Trinity College in their annual encounter.
Sebastian Sansoni, the captain of the under 19 Tennis team of S.Thomas’ College said, “This year has been special for college as we have won 4 big trophies including The Public Schools tournament, The Royal-Thomian, The Trinity-Thomian and also National School Games. The success of our team is essentially the result of the hard work put in by our players, who have been practicing from January. We have been prudently guided by Mr. Fonseka, our MIC and coached by Mr Anjuna Anthony since 2012. After his intervention with the team, there has been a rapid rise in our winning rate hence I would like to extend a “big thank you” to him for always lending a crucial hand whenever we needed him. Also to Mr Rohan de Silva, an old boy and current Sri Lanka Davis Cup Captain, who extended his support to us whenever required. The spirit of the team has improved much, it’s not about having fun but also knowing when to be serious and work towards a common goal. Our achievement was a team effort, and we hope to keep all our ups and downs and lessons learnt in mind, and keep the college flag flying high.”
Photo Caption:
Seated (L to R) – Mr. Anjuna Anthony, Avindra Perera (Secretary), Sebastian Sansoni (captain), Rev’d Marc Billimoria (Warden), Viranka Fernando (Vice-captain), Mr. M.C. Fonseka
Standing (L to R) – Akil Ismail, Thuvaragan Sabesan, Raynal Wickramaratne, Rohan Oscar, Anuka Liyanage, Vihan Herath, Dulitha Ellawala, Kiren Ranatunga