Defending title holders of the Sri Lanka Schools’ Swimming Championships Mahamaya College and St. Joseph’s College took major honors on day one of the 2016 championships topping the points tally in the girls’ and boys’ categories respectively.
Gathering a staggering 130 points at the end of the first day, the swimmers from Mahamaya seem to have already cemented their position at the top as Visakha Vidyalaya, who are currently in 2nd place, have just 98 points. In third place in the girls’ competition is Musaeus College with 79 points.
The Boys’ championship run seems no different to that of the girls, as the lads from Darley road; St. Joseph’s have amassed a total of 147 points. The second in contention Royal College have only 90 points and it would be tough for the Royalists to catch up on the Josephians. Lyceum College Wattala were in third place finish at the end of day one with 65 points but with three more days to go, there is still hope for the schools in the middle table to finish in the top tier.
The 43rd Annual Sri Lanka Schools’ Age Group Aquatic Championships saw a start last morning (23rd) at the Sugathadasa Swimming Complex with the Additional Secretary to the Ministry of Education gracing the opening ceremony.
Starting off the events in the morning was the Under 19 Boys’ Freestyle event and marking a great start to the competition was Royal College as Ranjula Agalawatte clocked in at 1st place with a timing of 18:29.99. Anupa Manjitha of Thurstan College and Eshan Sovis from St. Joseph’s came in second and third place respectively.
The Girl’s event started off with the Under 19 800 meter freestyle event and coming in victorious was Shenara David from Ladies’ College with a timing of 11:20.78 and Thilini Tennakoon of Mahamaya College took the silver medal in the event. Disuru Kalara came in third with a timing of 12:47.71.
Photo Album – Sri Lanka Schools Swimming & Diving Championship 2016 – Day 1
The standout performer of the day was 14-year-old Ramudi Samarakoon from Visakha Vidyalaya. Samarakoon, who is also the youngest ever South Asian Games medalist, participated in the Girls’ Under 15 200 meter backstroke event and won the gold medal smashing an eight-year-old record by clocking a timing of 2:51.06. The record was previously held by Gihara Amarasinghe who clocked in at 2:55.53 in 2008.
In the Boys’ Under 19 200m, Anupa Ranasinghe of St. Joseph’s College finished first with a timing of 2:49.91 while trailing close behind was M. A. Induwara of S. Thomas’. Induwara finished second and Josephian Dilen Weerasinghe took the third spot.
A total of 43 swimming events took place with a majority of them being preliminaries while the qualifying events for the finals are set to take place in the next few days.
Events will resume today (24th) at 9.30 a.m. at the Sugathadasa Swimming Complex.
