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Mayanka: A rugby star in the making

25 Apr 2021

By Olu Anthony On this week’s cover story, we met Mayanka Dias, an upcoming rugby star who is also equally good in his studies. Mayanka shared with us how he balances both sports and studies, and his story of becoming a talented young player. Mayanka, tell us about yourself. I’m Mayanka Dias. I study at S. Thomas’ College, Mount Lavinia in grade eight. I play rugger, football, and table tennis. I have two siblings, both sisters. Why do you like playing rugger? I like it because it is something most of my friends and I have in common. Most of us play rugger, so there are always people to play with. It is a game that includes a lot of teamwork. I have been playing it ever since I started school. My father also played rugger. So there has always been a rugger ball in the house ever since I was small. So one of the first things I ever played with is the rugger ball. How old were you when you started playing it? I was six years old. I first started playing for school. I played in the Under-Eight team, and at the time my coach was my father. I now play in the Under-14 group. Share with us one of your most memorable rugger experiences. My most memorable incident is very recent. It happened last year. We annually have an inter-house rugger carnival. In that, I was awarded as the “Best Upcoming Player” for my age group. Why is rugger more suited to you than other sports? I do not know if I can say that it’s more suited for me. I am physically very small compared to the other kids who play with me. But I like it and I choose it because I have been playing it for a long time. For the first few years, everyone plays rugger, but not many stay towards the latter part. What was the experience like when you started playing rugger for the first time? For me, it was very fun and relatively easy. When we were small, practices or training were not that hard. With time, the training sessions got tougher, especially when we got to the tackling part. But it is still fun. What have you added to your life by playing rugger? I have been playing for eight years now, and the most important things I learnt from rugger were how to be a good team member and how to interact with the rest of the members – even those whom I do not know, because it’s important that we play as a team. It has been a very challenging sport, but I have learnt to not give up when it is difficult. Have you faced any injuries? I got an injury a while ago during practices. My friend and I tried to tackle the same player and my teeth hit his head during the impact. My teeth went a little back in my mouth after that incident. After practices, my mother took me to the dentist. So far, that is the worst injury that has happened to me. Describe a typical day of training. At school, we would normally start training by stretching and doing exercises as instructed by our coach. We do passing and tackling after that. After those basic practices, we play a match and call it a day. Private training is just myself training with my father, who was a former rugger coach. With him, I mostly practice my kicking. What other sports do you play? I started table tennis when I was in grade three and I play up to date. The whole grade was taken to the table tennis court and encouraged to play. We were chosen there for the sport. I started football in grade five. I started liking it and playing it in 2017. One of my family friends liked football for a long time. She showed me some of its moves and I liked it too. I play in the Under-14 group at school. This is my fourth year. What would you choose out of these three sports, if you had to pick one? I cannot really choose one. If I had practices for all three sports on the same day, it depends on which sport needs urgent attention. For example, if one of the sports has a match coming up, I will go to that practice session. For rugger, we have a lot of matches sometimes, and then again nothing for months. Table tennis has the least number of matches because it would be for just two days. Why do you find football interesting? It is interesting for me because it takes a lot of practice and determination, and you must know the tricks to be that good. I am not very sure why I like watching football matches, but I enjoy watching them score and how they do it. I also learn how to do some moves and play better at each position. Moving on to academics, you’re a straight-A student, maintaining your average in the 90s range. How do you balance sports and education? I usually start studying for exams two weeks or a month before. I don’t study every day, but when I get the time, I study randomly. Talk to us about your interest in wildlife, safaris, and photography. My father takes us on safaris quite often. That is how I first got interested. We’ve been to Udawalawe, Kumana, Yala, and Wilpattu. I look forward to revisiting them. I can never get enough of these places. My father is the one behind all these interests I have. He took me along with some of his friends last year after Covid, when the parks reopened. That is when I started taking pictures. I enjoy photography because I want to hold on to that moment forever, even as a memory I can look at.


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