Top Karateka Randev wins Best All-Round Student

Monday, 13 February 2023 00:00 - - {{hitsCtrl.values.hits}}

Randev awarded “Best All-Round Student” at the Annual Prize Giving of St. Peters College

Chief Guest Michael Elaise awarding the Best Sportsman - Karate to the fifth year coloursman Randev Athukorala

Sri Lanka Schools Under 19 Black Belt Karate Champion and Twice a South Asian medallion Randev Athukorala was awarded “The Best All-Round Student” at the St. Peter’s College Annual Prize Giving 2023.

The award was significant as St. Peter’s celebrated 100 years in Sri Lanka with the Chief Guest being Rev. Dr. Malcolm Cardinal Ranjith and the Rector Rohitha Rodrigo.

Randev a fifth year coloursman in Karate is a past recipient of the Sportsman of the year award at St. Peter’s College and also “The Best Sportsman” award at the New Generation Awards in Sri Lanka. Apart from sports, young Athukorala excelled in studies by securing 4 A’s at the Advanced Level examination conducted by the Education Ministry, Government of Sri Lanka and is a undergraduate at a sought after University in Sri Lanka.

Senior Prefect Randev Athukorala’s passion for Karate began at a tender age of five years under the Coach Sensei DMD Nimal who voiced: “Randev has been living the values of karate since his small ages. He had his fair share of failures which has made him a competitive sportsman assisted by Coach Safraz.”

“Having captained the Sri Lanka Schools Karate Team, Randev went under the wing of the Sri Lanka National Coach Sensei Kalayana who brought out the best of him,” said the Headmaster for St. Peter’s Noel Cooray. “Randev went on to win the Gold Medal at the South Asian Karate Championships in New Delhi, India and also the World Championships in Teheran, Iran. The lesson other sportsmen must emulate from Randev is how he balanced Sports, Studies, extracurricular activities and being a Senior Prefect,” said the Rector St. Peters College Rev. Fr. Rohitha Rodrigo.

“The World Karate Association Rankings listed him at number 17 in the world in the Cadet 70 kg+ weight class in 2017, and he went on to achieve a personal best of 11th in the global ranking. In the Asian region, young Athukorala was ranked second behind Indonesian athlete Billy Bilmona Mohammad Besnuh while Chinese Karateka Yunlong Hu finished third behind the Sri Lankan that year. There are only three athletes from Asia who have broken into the world top 30 rankings,” said Coach Kalyana.

“I was diagnosed with dengue just 41 days before the South Asian Karate Championships in New Delhi, India but I wanted to fight for Sri Lanka and was happy to win the Gold,” said Randev. “When the pandemic hit Sri Lanka, we lost the best years of my life in the world of sports, but I focused strongly on studies. It was very motivating when I received 4 A‘s and qualified to enter University. My next challenge is to win a medal at the World Inter University Games,” Randev added.