The National and Junior National Short Course Swimming Championships 2023 ended on the 30th of December, closing the Aquatic calendar for 2023 at Hillwood College Kandy Swimming Pool.
With massive leads of more than 100 points, Killer Whale Aquatics ruled the pool, marking their dominance in both the National Men’s and Women’s sides. The Swimming Association of Maldives, also the highlight of the 2023 Nationals, acquired the Runners-Up position in the Men’s category, while Asian International School became the Runners-Up in the Women’s category. The Junior Boys’ Championship was won by Ananda College, Colombo, and the Girls’ Championship was taken home by Lyceum International School Gampaha.
>>National and Junior National Swimming SC to kick off today!
Hiruki De Silva and Kyle Abeysinghe from Killer Whale Aquatics were crowned as the National individual champions with their wins of 5 golds in all their events. P. R. Vandani Fernando from Killer Whale Aquatics became the Junior Girls’ champion, while M. M. Ekneligoda from Ananda College secured the Junior National Best Swimmer spot with 3 new records in 50m butterfly, 50m and 100m Backstroke events.
Five new individual records and 2 relay records were established at the Hillwood College Swimming Pool. Out of those, 6 records were by the Junior Boys.
The Junior Champion, M. M. Ekneligoda, broke Akalanka Peiris’s record in 50m butterfly with a new time of 26.80 seconds. He also became the record holder of 50m and 100m backstroke events with new times of 27.63 seconds and 1:00.67 seconds, previously held by Adeetha Siriwardena in 2022.
- Photos – National and Junior National Short Course Swimming Championships 2023 – Day 01
- Photos – National and Junior National Short Course Swimming Championships 2023 – Final
Lithum De Silva from Gateway College established a new record in the Junior Boys’ 800m freestyle event by swimming a six second faster time of 9:30.93 to the former record time by Sasmitha Wattaratenna.
A. N. N. Dabare from Ananda College lifted the Boys’ 100m Breaststroke record by a second with a time of 1:11.79 seconds, which was under his school senior Dasindu Perera from 2019.
The 2 relay records were by the under 15 team of Ananda College in 4*50m Medley relay, which was swum by K. A. H. Natheesha, A. N. N. Dabare, M. M. Ekneligoda, H. M. T. T. Wickramarathne and Killer Whale Aquatics in the Men’s 4*50m Medley Relay, raced by Matthew Abeysinghe, Vinul Senanayake, Anusara Abeygoonawardane and Kyle Abeysinghe.
