Dilanka Wijesekera was a ruggerite par excellence-by Althaf Nawaz

Source:Dailynews

It is remarkable to witness a person excel both in his academic and sporting career while engaging in various sports at school level, later becoming the cynosure of all eyes in that circle. Dilanka Wijesekera was a highly talented and a skillful player who had a phenomenal career in sports commencing from school until he reached the national level in the game of rugby.

Dilanka was born in 1983 and his home town is Wadduwa in Kalutara district. His father Donald worked at Colombo Ports Authority and now is a Proprietor of a business. Mother Delanthi worked at the Central Bank of Sri Lanka. He has two siblings Dilshika is a Director at Instacart in USA played hockey at school while Dilshan the other brother is the head of operations at Gaucho in UK played cricket at school. All three including Dilanka studied at St.Peter’s College, Colombo. He was enrolled at St.Peter’s in 1989 as a primary school student and went to complete his academic career in 2002, which had many achievements in sports.

As a sports loving kid, Dilanka initially chose athletics, hockey, basketball and rugby became the fourth preferred sport in his school career. He first became a member of the college Junior athletics team (Track and field) and represented the hockey team from under-13 to under 17

(captained the under 13 and 15 teams) while representing basketball from under-13 to under-19 (captained the under 15 team). But his involvement in rugby was due to the motivation of Ranidu Peries, a friend who played basketball with him in the college team. He had asked Dilanka to join the under-15 rugby team since he was the captain, for which Dilanka responded positively to continue his sporting career handling the oval shaped ball.

His rugby career started with the under-15 team in 1998 as open side flanker. Monitoring his skills, the coaches selected him to don the college first XV jersey from 1999 and went on to play until 2002.

Representing the college at the age of 16 was a unique achievement as he surged ahead to captain the first XV in 2002, his last season, where they were adjudged ‘Milo League Champions. For his aggressive performance in sports, he was honoured with the college colours in rugby in 2001 and 2002 seasons. He also carried away the Most Outstanding Sportsman of the Year award in 2002, became the only Peterite schoolboy to receive college honours while in school in the same year. In school rugby, played as a hooker in under-15 age group while in 1999 with the first XV team started off as a centre then moved on to play as an open side flanker, subsequently played in the key number 8 position in his final year.

His first rugby coach was Sunanda Fernando while Cicero de Fonseka became his inaugural first XV coach later taken over by S.W. Chang. Lalith de Silva was his basketball coach.

While he was a schoolboy he embarked on his club rugby career by playing in the under- 21 team for Havelock Sports Club in the 2001 and 2002 seasons, along with the sevens tournament. Then he decided to cross over to CH and FC in 2003 and went on to lock horns until 2009, where he was appointed as the captain in 2007. During his presence there he annexed the ‘Caltex

League Best Player’ award in 2005 and followed by the Best Player’s award in the knockout tournament in the same year.

He also was the first player to receive the ‘Charles Wijewardena Memorial Trophy’ in 2005. On an invitation extended by Doha Rugby Football Club in 2012 he continued playing for them until 2015, occupying the number 8 and flanker berth. That team became the Arabian Gulf League champions for the first time in their club history and was nominated as player of the tournament in 2015.

His presence in the junior National team also commenced while being a school boy and represented the under-19 Sri Lankan Team in 2000 held in Sri Lanka and 2001 in Japan. This was his stepping stone to his national rugby career, which included several unblemished records. In 2001, he was picked to represent the under-19 Sri Lanka team at the Junior World Cup 2001 in Santiago, Chile. While competing in both forms of the game, he represented Sri Lanka National sevens team in Hong Kong Sevens in 2002 and 2009, the Singer Sevens in 2002 and 2005, the Commonwealth Games from 2002 to 2006.

He also represented the National XV-a- side at Asian Games from 2002 to 2006. The best and biggest achievement in rugby was playing at the Rugby Asiads in 2002, 2004, 2006 and 2008, which was another scintillating performance. He also entered the elite group of players to represent the country as the youngest player in both versions (15-a-side and sevens at the age of 18). For his unstinted performance, he was picked to captain the Sri Lankan rugby team in 2009 (15-a-side) and went on to play in several other tournaments too.

His first Sri Lanka sevens coach was Asanga Seneviratne and played under Sanjeewa Jayasinghe while his first Sri Lanka 15’s coach was Tony Amit played under the captaincy of Asoka Jayasena. He is grateful for the opportunities given by his school and Sri Lankan Rugby. He made many lifelong friends, and it was an honour to play alongside them. He studied Sports Science specializing in Rugby at Unitec Auckland in New Zealand. At present he is based in Qatar employed at Qatar Petroleum. His wife is Anjali and has two children, Son Dwayne (7) and Daughter Atarah (5).