Visakha looking to turn the tables on Mahamaya at All Island Aquatics Championship

At the conclusion of the second day of the All Island Aquatics Championship there was no change to the leaderboard with Mahamaya, St. Joseph’s and Lyceum still in the lead.

St. Joseph’s and Mahamaya take top spot on day 01

The 44th annual All Island Aquatic Championship kicked off yesterday at the Sugathadasa swimming pool and by the end of the day…

Taking a look at the top performers of day 02 in the girls’ category, Mahamaya Girls’ School Kandy is still in the lead with 241 points but Visakha Vidyalaya is a very close second with 237.50 points. Shanali De Silva and Uthuma Silva were the only gold winners for Mahamaya during the second day, winning the U19 100 LC Meter Freestyle event with a timing of 1:09.07 and the U17 200 LC Meter IM event with a timing of 2:40.82 respectively.

Visakha, on the other hand, won 4 gold medals for the day. The 3rd and 4th day of the championship will determine whether Mahamaya can retain their position or whether Visakha will surge ahead.

The top performers for Visakha were as follows, Nimdoli Perera in the U11 category won the 100 LC Meter Backstroke event with a timing of 1:29.56, Sandu Savindi came first in the U17 100 LC Meter Butterfly clocking in at 1:10.94, Ramudi Samarkoon took first place in the U15 100 LC Meter Breaststroke event with a timing of 1:18.32 and Shehanthi Gunawardena won the U17 100 LC Meter Freestyle event with a timing of 1:03.49.

Taking a look at the boy’s side of the championship, St. Joseph’s College had a good day separating themselves from Royal College who are well behind the Josephians in second place. Whilst many of their swimmers were able to get ranked in their individual events, 2 Josephians were able to take first place in their respective events. Shevindha Desilva won the U15 100 LC Meter Backstroke event with a timing of 1:02.16 and Nuvinu Perera won the U15 200 LC Meter IM event clocking in at 2:23.43.

Moving on to the combined schools, Lyceum Wattala took a huge lead of over 150 points over Lyceum Nugegoda who are in second place. Thevindi Methlini won the U11 100 LC Meter Freestyle event clocking in at 1:12.28. Annanya Kalyanasundarum won the U13 100 LC Meter Freestyle event coming in at 1:07.05. The other gold winners were Thimali Bandara in the U15 age group who won the 100 LC Meter Butterfly with a timing of 1:11.78 and the 100 LC Meter Freestyle event clocking in at 1:04.45, Diluk Jayathileka in the U17 category who won the 100 LC Meter Breaststroke event clocking in at 1:12.34 and L A Lahiru came first in the U19 100 LC Meter Breaststroke event with a timing of 1:12.74.

During the course of the day, 11 new records were set, some of the most noteworthy of them are as follows; Shevindha De Silva broke the record for the U15 100 LC Meter Backstroke topping the existing timing of 1:04.82 with 1:03.00. Akalanka Peiris also set another record for U17 100 LC Meter Backstroke replacing the old record of 1:00.27 with his timing of 58.74. Ramudi Samarakoon from Visakha broke a record on day 02 as well for the U15 100 LC Meter Breaststroke event replacing the 1:19.92 timing with her 1:16.92 timing. B Dilanka Shehan from Ananda too performed up to expectations and broke a record on day 02 as well in the U19 200 LC Meter IM event replacing the old record of 2:24.30 with his timing of 2:22.00.

The Championship will continue today at the Sugathadasa swimming pool to determine which school will come out on top this year. The leaderboard at the end of day 02 is as follows.