The National and Junior National Swimming Championships 2022, organized by Sri Lanka Aquatic Sports Union, concluded their 4-day meet yesterday at Sugathadasa Swimming Pool Complex.
Showing how the tables can turn, Sri Lanka Army won the Men’s National Championship with 322 points, breaking the 5-year reign of Killer Whale Aquatics with a lead of 18 points. Killer Whale Aquatics entered the final day being 26 points ahead of Sri Lanka Army. Yet proving nothing is impossible, Army won the overall Championship after 16 years. Sri Lanka Army achieved this with 15 swimmers under the guidance of Coach Major Roshan Peiris.
Securing their 3rd consecutive National Champions title, Visakha Vidyalaya, Colombo won the Women’s National Championship with a total of 211 points. The Visakhians, with a team of 8 swimmers, started the final day 35 points ahead of the Killer Whale girls, and were 26.5 points ahead at the end of the championships. This is the 6th championship for the year 2022 which has been won by Visakha, under the guidance of Head Coach Julian Bolling.
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- Photos – National and Junior National Aquatic Championships 2022 – Day 2
- Photos – National and Junior National Aquatic Championships – Day 3
The Boy’s Junior National Championship was owned by St. Joseph’s College, Colombo with 173 points, and the Girl’s Junior National Championship was won by Sirimavo Bandaranaike Vidyalaya, Colombo 07 with a total of 128 points.
The National Individual Championships were won by Akalanka Peiris of the Sri Lanka Army, and Ramudi Samarakoon of Killer Whale Aquatics. Both the swimmers owned the title by establishing a new national record each, while winning 5 gold medals.
Akalanka Peiris established a new national record in the Men’s 50m Backstroke event with a time of 26.12 sec on the 2nd day, breaking his previous record performed at the Commonwealth Games 2022.
Ramudi Samarakoon established a new national record in the Women’s 100m Breaststroke event on the last day, with a time of 1:14.54, even breaking a 14-year-old record held by Mineka Karunaratne.
Furthermore, Anusara Abeygunawardane of Killer Whale Aquatics established a new national record in the Men’s 800m Freestyle event with a time of 8:49.80 on day 03, by renewing his own record held back in early 2022.
In addition to this, Killer Whale Aquatics ‘A’ broke the national record in the Women’s 4*50m Medley relay with a time of 2:10.28, which was previously 2:10.35. The 4 swimmers in the Medley relay were Akithmi Wasalathanthri, Anithra Johnpillai, Minuri Bartholamuse and Ramudi Samarakoon.
With the renewal of 4 national records, 5 new junior national records were also established in the last 4 days by 3 youngsters.
The backstroker Adeetha Siriwardena of Wesley College, Colombo owned 2 of the Junior National records by breaking Akalanka Peiris’s 8-year-old junior record in 50m Backstroke, with a time of 29.23 seconds on day 02. He also broke Shevinda De Silva’s 6-year-old junior record in 100m Backstroke with a time of 1:04.06 on day 03.
Sasmitha Wattarantenna of St. Joseph’s College, Colombo established new junior national records in both the Boys’ 400m Freestyle event and the Boys’ 800m Freestyle event, with times of 4:33.04 and 9:31.20.
The breaststroker M. F. Muhammad of Zahira College, Colombo established the record in the Boy’s 200m Breaststroke event with a time of 2:43.59.
The 2 Junior National Individual Champion titles were won by Senitha Deenal of St. Joseph’s College, Colombo, and Sithuki Yonara of Asian International School.
Click below for the results of the National and Junior National Swimming Championships 2022.
>> National and Junior National Swimming Championships 2022 Results <<
