Ananda College, Colombo (Boys) and Mahamaya College, Kandy (Girls) topped the rankings at the conclusion of the 35th National Age Group Aquatic Championships 2009, which concluded on at the Sugathadasa Stadium Swimming Pool yesterday.
Heshan Unamboowe of Trinity College, Kandy with a score of 35 points and Miniruwani Samarakoon of Gateway International School, Kandy scoring 30 points, topped the rankings in the Boys and Girls Under 19 in terms of individual scores, respectively. W. K. S. Wickramarachchi of the Polonnaruwa Aquatic Sports Club scored 25 points to top the individual Under 16 Boys rankings, while Nadeera Jayasekera of Visakha Vidyalaya, Colombo scored 30 points to top the individual rankings for the Girls in the same category.
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| Enthralling action at the Stadium pool yesterday. (Pic by Saman Kariyawasam) |
The end of the three day meet, yesterday, saw Heshan Unamboowe of Trinity College, Kandy, set seven new records. He set a new time of 2:14.40 in the Boys Under 19 200 metres backstroke breaking the previous record of 2:21.36 in 2000 which was set by Arun Karunarathne.
Unamboowe also broke his own records in the Under 19 100 and the 50 metres butterfly, the 100 and the 50 metres freestyle as well as the 100 and the 50 metres backstroke. The new times were as follows: 59.87, 27.06, 54.29, 24.21, 1:00.13 and 28.02. Miniruwani Samarakoon of Gateway International School, Kandy set three new records at the conclusion of the meet. The new records were set in the Girls Under 19 100 and 50 metres butterfly.
The previous record for the Under 19 100 metres butterfly was set in 1990 by Purnima Sendaresan with a time of 1:11.40 and the new time by Samarakoon at this years’ meet was 1:10.78. Dilanthi Ranaweera held the previous record in 2003, with a time of 32.46 in the 50 metres butterfly while Samarakoon’s new time was 32.08. Samarakoon went on to beat her own record which she set last year with a time of 2:38.37 in the Under 19 200 metres butterfly, beating her previous record of 2:40.34.
Ananda College’s Diluka Thibbotumunuwe was also among the record breakers, at the meet. He set a new time of 2:38.03 breaking his own record of 2:39.87 which he set last year in the Boys Under 19 200 metres breaststroke. Another Anandian among the record breakers at the meet was Punhasa Senanayake (18 years) when he set the new record for the Under 19 Boys 200 metres freestyle with a time of 2:04.73 breaking the previous time of 2:05.69 set by Eranga Fernando in the year 2000.
A new time of 34.07 was set in the Girls Under 19 50 metres backstroke by Udara Cumaratunga of Visakha Vidyalaya, who broke the previous time of 35.06, in 2003 by Dilini Liyanage.
The previous record for the Boys Under 16 100 metres butterfly was set by A. Abeysinghe/ G. Dulapandan with a time of 1:05.12 and a new record was set by Suvan Cabraal, of the Rainbow Aquatics Club, with a time of 1:05.09.
Three records were set by Imesh Chathuranga of D. S. Senanayake College, Colombo. These records were set in the Boys Under 12 50 metres backstroke, 50 metres butterfly and the 50 metres freestyle with the times for each even as follows: 35.94, 33.45 and 30.75.
The 35th National Age Group Aquatic Championships 2009 were organised by the Sri Lanka Aquatics Sports Union |
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