Last year runners up, Sri Lanka Air Force, emerged overall champions at the fifth Annual Defence Services Games 2009, which ended with an eye catching closing ceremony with a participation of over 1500 soldiers and officers at the Sugathadasa Indoor Stadium last Monday.

The closing ceremony was full of a show that coupled with plenty of entreating dancing performances alongside an exhibition Basketball match which featured players from the three forces. Incidentally, Navy and Army combined team beat the airmen by 62 points to 53, proving unity succeeds at last.

The Defending Champions, Sri Lanka Navy and SL Air Force collected 10.5 points each in the overall points tally, but Air Force won the overall championship as they had a greater number of runners-ups than SL Navy. As a result, SL navy had to content with the second spot while Sri Lanka Army finished third in this year’s Defence Services Games.

The focal point of this year’s Defence Services Games, was the only national record which was established by Chamali Priyadarshani. She came up with a magnificent performance in Triple Jump as she cleared a distance of 13.39 metres in the final. The previous record was a nine-year-old record, 13 metres which was set by Anusha Ekneligoda in 2002.

Chamali, not only broke the record but also became the most valuable Sportsperson.