Colombo Racecourse Colombo Racecourse was a harness racing course in the Cinnamon Gardens , Colombo. During the Second World War , it was used as a temporary airfield. In 2012 it was redeveloped as the Colombo Racecourse Sports Complex to become the first International Rugby Union ground in Sri Lanka to host all the national rugby union side's home matches. In 2014 the ground went through a major renovation, which included installation of floodlights and the conversion of a substantial part of the grandstand into a shopping and dining complex.History Horse racing Officially opened for horse racing in 1893 after it was moved from the Colpitty Race Course , as one of the best in terms of design, facilities, and size in the East. In 1922 a totalisator was installed becoming the first race course in the East to have one. The Colombo Turf Club was based here with its own pavilion and club house next to the grand stand.Airstrip In late 1941 World War II began in the East. After the fall of Singapore the Royal Navy's East Indies Station was moved to Colombo and then to Trincomalee . Admiral Sir Geoffrey Layton was appointed Commander-in-Chief, Ceylon with Air Vice Marshal John D'Albiac as air officer commanding , No. 222 Group RAF which was based in Ceylon. The order was given to construct an airfield at the Colombo Racecourse. D S Senanayake , Minister of Agriculture and Lands was given the task of its construction. Consisting only of a single runway, station headquarters and the officers mess were set up in the bungalows in Cinnamon Gardens and was serviced by a newly established military hospital in the premises of Royal College Colombo . Two squadrons of the Royal Air Force where based at the racecourse. They were No. 258 Squadron RAF with Hawker Hurricanes and No. 11 Squadron RAF with Bristol Blenheims. When the Easter Sunday Raid occurred the Japanese bombed the RAF units at RAF Ratmalana yet passed over the Racecourse Airstrip without knowing it existed. This allowed the Hurricanes of No. 11 Squadron to deploy and intercept the Japanese raiders.The Royal Navy also established a Royal Naval Air Station here during the duration of the war with the name HMS Bherunda . 882 Naval Air Squadron was based here.Decline Following the end of the war the airfield was dismantled, racecourse was reconverted back to a horse racing track . This was greatly affected after gambling and betting was banned in the country in 1956. This resulted in horse racing stopping completely in Colombo thereafter along with Nuwara Eliya Racecourse . The Colombo Racecourse, the Colombo Turf Club and its grounds were taken over by the government and its large land extent was segmented and distributed to government entities. Southern parts went to the University of Colombo , the northern portion to the Department of National Archives while others to the Royal College Sports Complex , Bloomfield Cricket and Athletic Club and sporting bodies. The Grandstand and the Colombo Turf Club building were neglected and used for different purposes. The Sri Lanka Army used it as a temporary garrison from time to time as well as the Sri Lanka Air Force used what was left racecourse grounds for landing transport helicopters.Colombo Racecourse Sports Complex In 2011 the Urban Development Authority commenced the renovation of the Grand stand and the Colombo Turf Club building. The structures were renovated by the 6th Engineer Services Regiment and Central Engineering Consultancy Bureau. The remaining grounds were redeveloped into Sri Lanka's first international grade Rugby Union grounds.
Popular articles Javier Milei - Argentine libertarian economist, author, radio conductor and public speaker sympathetic to the Austrian School of economic thought. He became widely known for his regular ...Jimmy Carter - American politician, philanthropist, and former farmer who served as the 39th president of the United States from 1977 to 1981. A member of the Democratic Party, he previ...UEFA Euro 2024 - The 2024 UEFA European Football Championship , commonly referred to as UEFA Euro 2024 or simply Euro 2024 , will be the 17th edition of the UEFA European Championship, the quadrennial internationa...Argentina - country located mostly in the southern half of South America. Sharing the bulk of the Southern Cone with Chile to the west, the country is also b...Sam Altman - American entrepreneur, investor, programmer, and blogger. He is the former president of Y Combinator and now the CEO of OpenAI. Early life and education. ...Rosalynn Carter - American who served as First Lady of the United States from 1977 to 1981 as the wife of President Jimmy Carter. For decades, she has been a leading advocate for numerou...Next Argentine presidential election - Next Argentine presidential election - presidential election in Argentina....Popular movies The Hunger Games (film) - 2012 American dystopian action thriller science fiction-adventure film directed by Gary Ross and based on Suzanne Collins’s 2008 novel of the same name. It is the first insta...untitled Captain Marvel sequel - part of Marvel Cinematic Universe....Killers of the Flower Moon (film project) - Killers of the Flower Moon - film project in United States of America. It was presented as drama, detective fiction, thriller. The film project starred Leonardo Dicaprio, Robert De Niro. Director of...Five Nights at Freddy's (film) - Five Nights at Freddy's - film published in 2017 in United States of America. Scenarist of the film - Scott Cawthon....Popular video games Minecraft - sandbox video game developed by Mojang Studios. Created by Markus "Notch" Persson in the Java programming language and released as a public alpha for personal computers in 2...Grand Theft Auto V - 2013 action-adventure game developed by Rockstar North and published by Rockstar Games. It is the first main entry in the Grand Theft Auto series since 2008's Grand Theft ...Roblox - online game platform and game creation system that allows users to program games and play games created by other users. Founded by David Baszucki and Erik Cassel in 2004 and released in...Baldur's Gate III - upcoming role-playing video game developed and published by Larian Studios for Microsoft Windows and the Stadia streaming service. It is the third main game in the Baldur's ...Alan Wake - action-adventure video game developed by Remedy Entertainment and published by Microsoft Studios, released for the Xbox 360 and Microsoft Windows. The story follows best-selling thri...Fortnite - online video game developed by Epic Games and released in 2017. It is available in three distinct game mode versions that otherwise share the same general gameplay and game engine: ...Super Mario RPG - is a role-playing video game developed by Square and published by Nintendo for the Super Nintendo Entertainment System in 1996. It was directed by Yoshihiko Maekawa and Chihiro Fujioka and produced by...Popular books Book of Revelation - The Book of Revelation is the final book of the New Testament, and consequently is also the final book of the Christian Bible. Its title is derived from the first word of the Koine Greek text: apok...Book of Genesis - account of the creation of the world, the early history of humanity, Israel's ancestors and the origins...Gospel of Matthew - The Gospel According to Matthew is the first book of the New Testament and one of the three synoptic gospels. It tells how Israel's Messiah, rejected and executed in Israel, pronounces judgement on ...Michelin Guide - Michelin Guides are a series of guide books published by the French tyre company Michelin for more than a century. The term normally refers to the annually published Michelin Red Guide , the oldest...Psalms - The Book of Psalms , commonly referred to simply as Psalms , the Psalter or "the Psalms", is the first book of the Ketuvim , the third section of the Hebrew Bible, and thus a book of th...Ecclesiastes - Ecclesiastes is one of 24 books of the Tanakh , where it is classified as one of the Ketuvim . Originally written c. 450–200 BCE, it is also among the canonical Wisdom literature of the Old Tes...The 48 Laws of Power - non-fiction book by American author Robert Greene. The book...Popular television series The Crown (TV series) - historical drama web television series about the reign of Queen Elizabeth II, created and principally written by Peter Morgan, and produced by Left Bank Pictures and Sony Pictures Tel...Friends - American sitcom television series, created by David Crane and Marta Kauffman, which aired on NBC from September 22, 1994, to May 6, 2004, lasting ten seasons. With an ensemble cast sta...Young Sheldon - spin-off prequel to The Big Bang Theory and begins with the character Sheldon...Modern Family - American television mockumentary family sitcom created by Christopher Lloyd and Steven Levitan for the American Broadcasting Company. It ran for eleven seasons, from September 23...Loki (TV series) - upcoming American web television miniseries created for Disney+ by Michael Waldron, based on the Marvel Comics character of the same name. It is set in the Marvel Cinematic Universe, shar...Game of Thrones - American fantasy drama television series created by David Benioff and D. B. Weiss for HBO. It...Shameless (American TV series) - American comedy-drama television series developed by John Wells which debuted on Showtime on January 9, 2011. It...
OWIKI.org . Text is available under the Creative Commons Attribution-ShareAlike License.