School, and Sri Lanka colours holder, member of the National karate team, Gold Medalist in kata and kumite, captain for the Bangladesh tour, member of the Japan Karate Do-Nobukawaha Shitoh-Ryu-Kai Academy black belt holder, , best gymnast and athlete Savindi Prasanth Samarakoon has brought honour and immense glory to her two schools Swarnamali Girls School and Girls High School Kandy and to her motherland with her deeds in the fields of karate, gymnastics and athletic.
Savindi who hails from Katugastota Kandy was born on 19th March 2004 and initially admitted to Swarnamali Girls School Kandy in 2010 and when she came upto Grade 2 she showed a keenness in karate and her parents Kumara Samarakoon and Gayani Kulatunga admitted their daughter to Japan Karate Do-Nobukawaha Shitoh-Ryu-Kai karate a private academy in Kandy and she came under Priyantha Gunasekera in 2012 and her first attempt was in the same year and at the Central Provincial Championship she won a Gold Medal for kata and at the Junior Karate National Championship she came up to Best Eight.
Then in 2014 she passed the Grade 5 Scholarship exam with flying colours and she was drafted to Girls High School Kandy and came under Rohitha Seneviratne and in 2016 at the Provincial Meet she got Golds for kata and kumite and at the National Schools Meet she won Golds for kata and kumite and at the 2017 Provincial Meet too she won Golds for kata and kumite and at the National Karate Championship too she won Golds for kata and kumite.
Then in the same year she received the Black Belt from the President of the Japan Karate Do-Nobukawaha Shitoh-Ryu-Kai Soke Kuneaki and with all these performances under her belt she toured Pune, India for a nine Nation tournament where she won Golds for kata and kumite in the under 14 age category and returning to Sri Lanka at the schools meet she received the Excellent Performance Award and at the 2019 Provincial Meet she won Golds for kata and kumite and at the Sri Lanka Ministry of Education Meet she won Golds for kata and kumite.
Then in 2019 at the National Karate Championship she won Golds for kata and kumite and at the Team Event Golds for kata and kumite and she received the Best Player’s Award. Same year she toured Bangladesh as the under 15 captain and won Golds for kata and kumite and in 2021 at the Online E-kata championship held in Sri Lanka she won a Gold and at the Sri Lanka Nationals Meet she won a Gold and then in the Ministry of Education Meet won a Gold in the under 20 age group.
At the Nationals team event Gold for kata and Silver for Team Event and at the schools Federation meet kata and kumite Golds and at the open karate championship kata Bronze and selected for the karate 6th South Asian Karate Championship and the Individual kata she won a Gold at the 2023 Department of Education meet kata Gold and kumite Gold and at the Provincial Meet she was selected as the under 20 Best Player of the year and in 2023 she was named as the Most Outstanding Player of the year.
At the Nationals she won a Gold and at the schools Federation Games a Silver for kata at the under 20 age group and at the Provincial Open Meet a Silver for kata and during a span of eleven years she has won 34 Medals which consists of 31 Golds, 2 Silvers and 1 Bronze which is a very rare achievement indeed. In addition to karate she did athletics and gymnastic at junior level in the school.
Dilwin Mendis Moratuwa Sports Special Correspondent
