Niyaz Majeed top weightlifter and ruggerite-By Upananda Jayasundera

Niyaz Majeed

Niyaz Majeed

Niyaz Majeed, an old boy of St.Anthony’s College,Katugastota was an International Weightlifter and a fine rugby player who captained the first Kandy Lake Club team. His contemporaries were Didacus de Almeida, Gavin Stevens, Maurice Perera, Alex Lazarus, Farouk Dole, and Maurice Windus to name a few. At School he played Tennis, Rugby and Basketball besides taking part in Boxing & Karate.

Majeed said that Covid – 19 epidemic is well controlled in Sri Lanka due to the great efforts of the Government, Health Services and Armed Forces.

He represented Sri Lanka in Weightlifting at two Asian Games along with S.A. Wijewickrema,Mahesh Sabaratnam and Dr.G.E.A. de Kroos in 1965 in Bejing, China and in Cambodia in 1966. Packeer Ali accompanied them as Coach.

When Majeed Captained the Rugby team of Kandy Lake Club, they beat Havelocks SC in Colombo and Kandy SC and proved to be tough opponents to the other Clubs in the premier league.

After a couple of years they emerged with Kandy Sports Club and Niyaz Majeed joined Kandy SC and represented the Country against Bosuns and also Up-country in the Annual Capper Cup match against Low Country for seven years as a flanker. In 2008, the Kandy District Sports Develoopment Foundation selected the outstanding sportsmen & sportswomen and selected Niyaz Majeed for Weightlifting, Arjuna Ranatunge for Cricket, Daya Jayasundera for Rugby, G.A.S. Gunasinghe for Boxing, T.M.Amidon for Soccer and B.D.J. Selfa for Softball Cricket etc. and all of them received Mementos for their performances.

Majeed booked his place in the Sri Lanka Weightlifting team (then Ceylon) when he bettered three Sri Lanka records at the national Championships held at the University of Peradeniya competing in the middle weight class in the 1960s.

Altogether he held 11 National records in weightlifting. When he was a student at St.Anthony’s College,Kandy, he used to win the English Prize in every Class.