Day 3 of the National and Junior National Short Course Swimming Championship ended with a mammoth 15 records being shattered, in both the individual and team events.
The first two days of the meet saw Hiruki De Silva, Akithmi Wasalathanthri and Nabashie Perera completely owning the Junior Girls category while National star Akalanka Peiris took care of things in the senior category by dismissing a record previously held by Matthew Abeysinghe.
Day 3 turned into a bouquet of records, 11 individual records with 4 coming off the relays.
Junior National Records
Hiruki De Silva of Gateway College Dehiwala managed to secure her 5th straight record in the Girls Under 15 category. After her brilliant performance on the opening day of the meet, with two records in the 200m Freestyle and IM, she then sealed shut three more today.
In the 100m Freestyle she clocked in a time of 1:02.24 min to beat the previous record of 1:02.79 min held by Visakhian Ganga Seneiratne.
Day 1 Results: Hiruki and Nabashie shine with records on day 1 of SC Nationals
Hiruki went on to win the 400m and 800m Freestyle events with record breaking timings of 4:56.12 min and 10:25.20 minutes. With this, De Silva has managed to secure gold as records in all five of her events at this year’s SC Nationals.
De Silva’s counterpart, Nabashie Perera returned to the pool after 2 records of her own on day 1 – 100m Butterfly and 200m IM. Hungry for more, she managed to emerge first place in the Girls U15 50m Fly event with a timing of 30.95 seconds to beat the previous record, which was timed as 31.11 seconds.
Minagi Rupasinghe of St. Bridget’s Convent earned her maiden record in this year’s meet in the Girls U15 200m Backstroke event. She clocked in a final timing of 2:30.68 minutes to better the previous record of 2:42.03 by over 10 seconds.
Photos: National and Junior National Short Course Swimming Championship 2019 – Day 03
With already a record in the U15 50m Back, Akithmi Wasalathanthri returned to collect. She scored 20 more points for Lyceum International Wattala, with first place finishes in the 100m and 200m Back, while also breaking records in both these events.
She swam the 100m Back in 1:08.55 min to best the previous record of 1:10.00 minutes. In the 200m Backstroke, she clocked in at 2:36.49 minutes in the final to beat the earlier record of 2:42.03 min by a long shot.
Day 2 Results: Akalanka breaks Matthew’s National record in 50m Back
Moving on to the boy’s category, 2018 All Island School’s individual award winner Chris Pavithra of St. Peter’s College saw his first record at the short course meet this year in the Boys U15 200m Breaststroke. With the record at 2:40.13 min, Pavithra swam his final lap in 2:30.24 min to renew the record.
Vanuja Kannangara managed his second Gold medal today in the Boys u15 200m Backstroke, but this time he managed to hit the record right on the nail. With the record been set at 2:25.92 min, Vanuja swam a close 2:25.40 min to seal the deal with a record and 10 points for St. Joseph’s College.
Senior National Records
Commonwealth co-stars, Dilrukshi Perera and Akalanka Peiris returned to the local circuit, and they have outdone themselves yet again.
Akalanka Peiris with a 50m Backstroke already to his name, went on to topple a 7-year record set by Heshan Unamboowe from 2012, in the 100m Backstroke. With the previous record held at 55.59 seconds, Akalanka swam a beautiful 4-lap piece in 54.91 seconds to grab his 2nd Gold for the year.
Click here for Records from Day 3
Dilrukshi Perera of Hillwood College, Kandy broke a 5-year record set by Reshika Udugampola back in 2014, in the Girls 50m Fly event. Perera closed strong with 29.42 seconds to best Udugampola’s timing of 29.51 seconds.
Visakha Vidyalaya went on to score their 2nd record in the Relay events, this time in the 400m Freestyle Relay. Their final timing was 4:12.14 minutes. Lyceum International School, Nugegoda also stamped two records to their name in the Boys U15 200m and 400m Freestyle relays.
The final record for the day came with Ananda College coming in second in the Boys U15 200m Free Relay with a timing of 1:50.68, which was still deemed fit to be entered into the record books.
The final day of the Short Course Nationals will take place tomorrow with Visakha Vidyalaya and Ananda College leading the senior charge.
Stay logged on to ThePapare.com for results, photos and records from the competition!
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