Niyaz Majeed, an Old Boy of St. Anthony’s College, Katugastota was an international weightlifter and a fine rugby player who captained the first Kandy Lake Club team.
His contemporaries were Didacus de Almeida, Gavin Stephens, Morris Perera, Alex Lazarus, Farouk Dole and Morris Windus to name a few. At school he played tennis, rugby and basketball besides taking part in boxing and karate.
He represented Sri Lanka in weightlifting at two Asian Games along with S.A.Wijeyawickrema, Mahesh Sabaratnam and Dr.G.E.A de Kroos in 1965 at Beijing, China and in 1966 in Cambodia.
Packeer Ali accompanied them as coach.
When Majeed captained the rugby team of Kandy Lake Club they beat Havelocks SC in Colombo and Kandy SC and proved to be tough opponents to the other clubs in the premier league. The Lake Club was then banned for professionalism and served a period of suspension before reappearing as Kandy Rugby Football Club in later years.
After a couple of years they merged with Kandy Sports Club and Niyas Majeed joined Kandy SC. It was while at Kandy SC that he represented the country against Bosuns and also the Up-country in the Annual Capper Cup against Low-country for seven years as a flanker.
In 2008, Majeed was felicitated by the Kandy District Sports Development Foundation in recognition of his long standing service to weightlifting and rugby.
Majeed booked his place in the Sri Lanka team then Ceylon for weightlifting team when he bettered three Sri Lanka records at the National championships held at the University of Peradeniya competing in the middle weight class in the 1960s. Altogether he held 11 National records in weightlifting.
Presently the weights are measured in kilos compared to the good old days when it was measured in pounds.
Majeed believes that age is no barrier to engage in fitness exercises and at present has his own gym at home. Presently he is the Managing Director of Stafford Gems who are exporters in association with A and I Gems London while at the same time is the General Manager of the Sporting Times in Kandy.Despite his busy schedule Majeed is also a social worker helping underprivileged sportsmen in and around Kandy. In 1991, he travelled around the world to promote Sri Lankan gems and in 1999 visited thirty eight cities to promote Sri Lankan gems.