The 45th edition of the prestigious Sri Lanka Schools Swimming Championship splashed at the Sugathadasa Indoor Swimming Complex, this morning (6th June). St. Joseph’s College and Mahamaya Girls College Kandy finished day 1 of the Milo All Island Interschool Aquatic Championship with resounding leads.
Photo Album – 45th All Island Schools Aquatic Championship – Day 1
The day’s proceedings kicked off with a grand opening ceremony hosted by Milo Sri Lanka, with additional secretary Mr. Y.A.N.D Yapa gracing the event as the chief guest. He was joined by the Vice President of Corporate Affairs at Nestle Lanka Plc, Mr. Bandula Egodage.
A total of 52 events were scheduled for the day. The action kicked off with the senior boys taking on the 1500m Freestyle senior event and with the girls taking on the 800m Freestyle Senior events.
>> Click here for Records set in Day 1
M. Wickramaratne of S. Thomas’ College took home the first win for the day with the 1500m Freestyle with a time of 20:13.69 minutes. Uththama Silva of Mahamaya Girls College set a new Sri Lanka Schools record in the 800m Freestyle event. The previous record, 11:06.26 minutes, was set by Sunethra Wijerathne in 2012 and Uththama managed to topple it after 6 long years, finishing with an astounding 10:42.53 minutes.
K. C. Dalpandu of Ananda College set his own meet record in the Boys U-19 100m Breaststroke event ousting Yahiya Jaffer’s record from 2015. He finished his lap with a time of 1:11.30 minutes.
Visakha Vidyalaya had a massive victory with their young 14-year old superstar Ganga Senevirathne shattering a 4 year old record set by Olympian Kimiko Raheem in the Girls 200m Backstroke event. Senevirathne finished the final lap with a time of 2:36.80 minutes as opposed to the previous record set at 2:37.37 minutes.
Sandu Savindi ousted a 3-year record in the Girls U-19 50m Freestyle event, finishing with a time of 28.22 secs. M Jayasinghe of Trinity College took home a close win of 33 milliseconds against Deshaka Senevirathna of St. Benedicts College in the Boys U-19 50m Free event.
Junior Champion Ramudi Samarakoon of Visakha Vidyalaya crushed Monali Weerakkody’s record in the Girls U-17 100m Backstroke by 2 second margin. Ramudi swam at 1:20.27 minutes to win the finals of the 100m Back final.
Shenali Herath of Sirimavo Bandaranaike Vidyalaya set a new schools record of 32.33 seconds in the Girls U-19 50m Butterfly event, beating out a record set in 2015 (32.72secs). Shenali took home her second victory of the day in the Girls U-19 200m Butterfly event with a time of 3:02.89 minutes.
Notable mention should be made of Azquiya Usuph of The British School Colombo, who had a stellar start to the meet being the only swimmer to set 2 new meet records. The first one came in the U-19 200m Individual Medley with a time of 2:43.83 minutes, setting the record by a margin of 02:04 seconds. The other came later in the day, in the U-19 200m Backstroke event, as she finished with a time of 2:39.99 minutes. The previous meet record was set back in 2013 by Ishani Senanayake (2:43.95 minutes).
>> Click here for full Results Sheet of Day 1
At the end of day 1, 19-time successors and defending champions, Mahamaya Girls College Kandy stood tall on top with 173 points. Silver winners of 2017, Visakha Vidyalaya trail at second with 121 points in total with Ladies College in third place with 79 points.
>> Click here for Final Standings of Day 1
With all their 14 years of winning morale, St. Joseph’s College endes day 1 on top of the leaderboard with 164 points. Trailing by 80 points is Ananda College. The mighty Royalists are close behind in third place with 75 points at the end of day 1.
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