Cinnamon’s city hotels dominate JKH Rugby 7’s 2017

The determined city sector teams dominated the annual John Keels Rugby 7’s tournament, held on 21 October, which was a key event on the group’s event calendar. 

The city hotels comprising Cinnamon Grand, Cinnamon Lakeside and Cinnamon Red performed extremely well by fighting their way to the final rounds in their respective categories. 

Cinnamon Grand’s team emerged Cup category runners-up while Cinnamon Lakeside was named champion in the Shield category. Cinnamon Red were named runners-up in the Plate category. Cinnamon Grand were also declared winners of the tag rugby tournament. 

After a day of gruelling professional style rugby against 11 teams and 12 tag rugby teams from over 15 companies, the Cinnamon Grand team comprising B.G.P.P. Jayasinghe (Capt.), K.G.D.M. Pramodha, E.A.M.P Pradeep, K.G.N. Kumara, N.H. Maduranga J.K.H. Perera, U.W.C. Chanaka, W.M.S.A. Weerasekara, D.R. Perera, M.M.G. Iddamalgoda, H.M.L.L. Herath and W.M.R. Kumara bravely fought their way through to the finals of the Cup category where they ultimately conceded defeat to the skilled John Keells Office Automation team and emerged runners-up in a hard-fought final battle. 

The talented, extremely spirited Cinnamon Lakeside rugby team emerged champions of the shield trophy playing Walkers Tours in the final. 

The team comprised Kanchana Sandaruwan (Captain), Selvarajah Prasanth, Dananjaya Kulathunga, Thivanka Hapugoda, Kasun Fernando, Ranga Nadushan, Shanon Fonseka, Adhil Kitchilan, Samila Perera, Minendra Ratwatta, Vihan Moralandegedara, Madusha Guruge, Saman Perera (Team Manager), Lahiru Barrie and Oshadha Liyanaratne.

The talented team from Cinnamon Red were named runners-up in the Plate category after being defeated by Cinnamon Citadel. The team comprised Radeesha Senevirathna (Captain), Susitha Padmakumara, Shahin Ahamed, Dinesh Supramaniam, Ryan Victoria, Aruna Nuwan, Pabasara Hewage, Sithum Peiris, Ishara Madushan, Thilina Weerasinghe, Kumuthan Mariapillai and Sean Pandithasekera. 

The Cinnamon Grand tag rugby team also packed a punch against all their opponents cruising into the finals where they claimed a well-deserved victory against Leisure Inbound. The team comprised Marlon De Silva – Captain, Luxman Perera, Andrino De Silva, P.P. Manoj, Majith Cassim, Dilshan Perera, Ashan Peiris, Anushka Priyadarshana, S.G. Harsha, Manoj Sarathchandra, R.R. Michael and Hashan Opatha. 

Cinnamon Hotels and Resorts Sector Head - City Hotels Rohan Karr reflected on the event and on the performance of the teams mentioning that he was extremely proud of all three city hotels teams who in his opinion truly captured the Cinnamon spirit of sportsmanship, and that even though hotels are a very operations-based industry, the teams managed to find a balance between work and practice to achieve great accolades in the event. 

Over 700 spirited associates cheered on the teams throughout the day and proudly welcomed the players back to the pavilion with cheers and applause. 

Cinnamon’s City hotels ensured that associates from all three properties - Cinnamon Grand, Cinnamon Lakeside and Cinnamon Red - enjoyed a fun day of great rugby with all the accompaniments of food, drink, music and camaraderie which made the event a great success.