The 39th edition of the Inter School Swimming and Diving Championships is one of the most anticipated events in the inter-school sporting calendar.
The four-day event – June 28 to July 1, 2012, hosted over 1500 participants from various parts of the island, representing talented swimmers and divers from government, private and international schools.
This premier Aquatic event featured action-packed swimming, across six age groups, from Under 9 to Under 19, in both boys and girls categories and produced some fascinating match ups. The battle between the reigning champions St. Joseph’s College and Royal College from the male category and Mahamaya College and Ladies College from the Female’s.
The Josephians however were placed first in the overall male category and MahamayaCollege were placed first in the Female. In the diving segment Bishops College and Royal College were placed first with 94 and 224 points respectively.
The Josephians, who were coached by an experienced campaigner and National swimming coach Mr.RuwanMadawanu were blessed with being theChampions for the 9th consecutive year. Joesentered the meet with a large population of swimmers and fantastic training.Mr. Ruwan also had the pleasure of working with his son KanishkaManawadu the joyous skipper of Joes. SJC were awarded 637 points overall. They were closely followed by Royal College who secured 550 points under the leadership of KanithaMunasinghe. After the meet Kanitha had this to say “The Josephians have a very skilled and good spirited squad however Royal this year also have had the same. I like to congratulate the Joes team on their win. But next year I’m sure Royal can also do well as we have been placed 2nd for the last 4 years and slowly but surely are closing the gap.”
Mahamaya College Kandy were also crowned Champions for the 14th consecutive time. Mahamaya College who entered this meet with a lot of youngsters had it all to do. However they managed their resources to the fullest and came in first with 489 points overall. Ladies College their closest rivals managed to score 401 points. Captain Sunethra Wijerathne of Mahamaya College Kandy told the Papare “We have trained very hard for this win, Ladies College have also become stronger and competition has increased. However we are very glad to be winners once again.”
Junior Girls Championship – Mahamaya College 1st, Ladies College 2nd and Hillwood College 3rd.
Junior boys Championship – DS Senanayake 1st, St. Joseph’s College 2nd and Trinity College 3rd.
Senior Girls Championship – Ladies College 1st , VisakhaVidyalaya 2nd, Mahamaya College 3rd.
Senior Boys Championship – St. Joseph’s College 1st, Royal College 2nd, Ananda College 3rd.
Throughout the 4 intense days a total of 37 records were broken and 10 relay records were broken. There were also some astonishing performances by individuals that were a class apart from the rest.
Under 9 Champions – Thisaraamdini (AnulaVidyala) and Isurinda Rajapaksha (Dharmasoka College Ambalangoda)
Under 11 Champions – Devindya Jayawardane (Mahamaya College) and Sandev Senaratne (AC)
Under 13 Champions – Kimiko Raheem (AIS) and BDC Dharmariya (TCK)
Under 15 Champions – Vinoli Siriwardane (Mahamaya College) and Akshaya Kumarajeewa (SJC)Joint champ with Imesh Chathuranga (DS Senanayake)
Under 17 Champions – Nadeera Jayasekara (VisakhaVidyalaya) and WKS Wickramarachchi (Royal Central Polonnaruwa)
Under 19 Champions – SunethraWijerathne (Mahamaya College) and KanithaMunasinghe (RC) Joint champ with UvinduPerera (Gateway College Colombo)
The 4 days clearly belonged to St Joseph’s College and Mahamaya College and that was what many supporters had to say. “The Joes team was really big and they accumulated their points through every single swimmer as did Mahamaya College.” One supporter went on to say “Joes and Mahamaya were very good but Royal and Ladies have gotten better and so I think next year will be quite interesting.”
ThePapare team would like to congratulate SJC and Mahamaya College on their dominating victories over the years.
