St. Joseph’s and Mahamaya take top spot on day 01

The 44th annual All Island Aquatic Championship kicked off yesterday at the Sugathadasa swimming pool and by the end of the day Mahamaya and St. Joseph’s were in the lead. Read on to see the summary of day 01.

All Island Aquatic Championship to start this week

The 44th annual Sri Lanka Schools All Island Age Group Aquatic Championship will commence on the 29th…

Day 01 was full of excitement and cheer as many of the swimming giants took their positions on the leader board and many new records were set throughout the day.

From the girl’s side of the tournament last year’s champions, Mahamaya Girls School Kandy have made strong attempts at defending their title taking the top spot on day 01 with 113 points. Whilst many swimmers from Mahamaya managed to get placed during the events held on day 01, the following swimmers were able to grab first place in their respective events. Vinoli Siriwardana won the u19 200 LC Meter Backstroke event with a timing of 2:55.82 and Shanali De Silva won the u19 50 LC Meter Freestyle event with a timing of 31.30.

On the boy’s side of the tournament once again it was last year’s champions St. Joseph’s College who took the top spot at the end of day 01 with a total of 130 points. The top performers for St. Joseph’s were the following swimmers. Shaveen Wickramartna came first in the u11 50 LC Meter Butterfly event with a timing of 35.50, Shevindha De Silva took first place in the u15 200 LC Meter Backstroke event with a timing of 2:19.86 and the u19 200 LC Meter Backstroke event was also won by a Josephian, Praveen Induruwage with a timing of 2:28.44.

Taking a look at the mixed schools it was Lyceum Wattala who managed to take first place with a score of 151 points. Thevindi Methlini was a top performer taking first place in the u11 50 LC Meter Backstroke event with a timing of 40.01. Akithmi Wasalathanthri was also a key swimmer for Lyceum winning the u13 50 LC Meter Backstroke event with a timing of 36.62, Kenuli Konara took first place in the u11 100 LC Meter Backstroke event with a timing of 1.36:06, Anannya Kalyanasundaram also brought in points for Lyceum winning the u13 200 LC Meter Freestyle event with a timing of 2:25.38, Rakitha De Silva secured first place in the u17 50 LC Meter Freestyle event with a timing of 24.92. Diluk Jayathilake and L. A. Lahiru were the other first placed winners for Lyceum winning the u17 200 LC Meter Breaststroke event with a timing of 2:37.61 and the u19 200 LC Meter Breaststroke event with a timing of 2:39.50 respectively.

Dilrukshi Perere from Hillwood College Kandy also had noteworthy performance, winning both the u17 50 LC Meter Butterfly event and 50 LC Meter Freestyle event with timings of 31.34 and 28.78 respectively.

By the end of the day 01, 8 new records had been set. The following are a few of the new records that were established. B Dilanka Shehan from Nalanda College beat the existing 18:18.22 record for the u19 1500 LC Meter Freestyle event with his timing of 17:50.03. Shevindha De Silva from St. Joseph’s set a new record for the u15 200 LC Meter Backstroke event with his timing of 2:19.86 beating the existing record of 2:22.49. Vinoli Kaluarachchi from Sirimavo Bandarnaike also set a new record for the u17 200 LC Meter Backstroke event with her timing of 2:33.38 replacing the record of 2:33.48. Akalanka Peiris from St. Peter’s College set a new timing for the u17 50 LC Meter Butterfly event with his timing of 25.51 which beat 26.08. Ramudi Samarakoon from Visakha also broke a record in the u15 200 LC Meter Breaststroke event with her timing of 2:47.79 replacing 2:51.06.

The points table by the end of day 01 is as follows.