By M.H.Yakeem
Shonali of Holy Family Convent Bambalapitiya selected for the Sri-Lanka Basketball Federation pool.
17 year old Shonali Dharmasena, a student of Holy Family Convent Bambalapitiya has proved her talents in basketball and has been chosen to the Sri-Lanka Basketball Federation pool for the Commonwealth games this year.
She is the Vice Captain of the under 20 Champion team which took part in the Schools division 1 All Island tournament and also represented HFC Blues in the 53rd Senior Nationals tournament, where they emerged runner-up. Last year Shonali was selected to represent the 3 X 3 men/ women Sri-Lanka team for the FIBA under 18 World championship held in Hungary.
Shonali following her grand mother,’s footsteps, as she too was a versatile sports woman, where she had the distinction of Captaining the Netball and Volleyball teams of Sri-Lanka in 70’s and was recognised as a double international and she also excelled in sports such as Badminton, Basketball, Football and Athletics is an old girl of Government Cenral College Miniuwangoda and the College has to proud of her achievements today.
Her grandmother, Sophia Dharmasena had the honor of representing the Sri-Lanka Netball team for the first ever inaugural World tournament held in 1963 , which was staged in England and this team was victorious against Northern Ireland and Wales. She was appointed as the Captain of the Sri-Lanka Netball team in 1970 and the Volleyball team in 1973 .
Shonali’s father, Kishan and uncle Suranjith Dharmasena are famous Cricketers, who played for Thurston College and division 1 club Cricket for NCC and Tamil Union respectively and presntly participates in the ongoing 50 plus Masters tournaments .
Sophia Dharmasena will now like to see her grand daughter following her footsteps , where her son Suranjith represented the Sri-Lanka schools under 19 Cricket team against the visiting Australia team in 1984 and also the 50 plus Masters World Cup tournament held in South Africa two years back and this tournament was abandoned due the Covid 19 virus and this is an unique feat created by this family, representing Sri-Lanka in different fields of Sports from generation to generations .
