Nine records tumble on Day 3
Pix by Amila Gamage
St. Joseph’s Colombo and Mahamaya Girls School Kandy the defending champions of the boys’ and girls’ categories look set to retain the title for yet another year as they were in the lead when proceedings ended on day three of the 43rd Schools Age Group Aquatic Championship held at the Sugathadasa Stadium swimming pool. St. Joseph’s will look forward to clinch the title for the 13th successive time while Mahamaya the champs for the last 17 years will be aiming for the 18th successive title. St. Joseph’s are way ahead having so far accumulated 482.50 points while Royal in second is way behind on 317.50 points. The duo are followed by Ananda (202), Lyceum International Wattala (194), Nalanda (152), S. Thomas’ (132), Trinity (107), Lyceum International Nugegoda (105.50), St. Peter’s (100) and St. Sebastian’s Moratuwa (88). Mahamaya with 410 points has built up a massive lead over Visakha Vidyalaya Colombo who has secured 280 points.
They are followed by Lyceum International Wattala (261), Museasus (203.50), Sirimavo Bandaranayak BV (157), Ladies (152), Hillwood Kandy (95), St. Bridget’s (92.50), Lyceum International Panadura (83) and Lyceum International Nugegoda (74.50). Meanwhile the third day’s proceedings which ended yesterday saw nine new records being established comprising five in the boys and four in the girls’ categories bringing the tally of records broken to 27 which comprised 15 in the girls’ and 12 in the boys. In the boys category Dilanka Shehan of Nalanda swam to his third record of the meet with a new timing of 4.22.34 in the 400m U17 Freestyle to eclipse the record of 4.25,59 of C.M.B. Hulangamuwa set in 2013. Deelaka Jayatileke of Ananda set a new record of 2.24.41 in the 200m U15 Butterfly to better the record of 2.27.17 set by Ishara Abeyratne in 2014 while Imesh Chathuranga of DSS eclipsed a record of 2.15.05 set by G. Dulanpanden that stood since 1994 in the 200m U19 Butterfly stroke event with a new timing of 2.13.54.
Akalanka Peiris of St. Peter’s achieved his second record of the meet which came in the 50m U17 Backstroke with a timing of 27.75 to erase the existing record of 28.63 set by Imesh Chathuranga in 2014 and C.R. Yoganathan of St. Anthony’s set a new record of 31.78 in the 50m U17 Breaststroke event to eclipse the record of 32.39 set by Praneeth Udugampola in 2010. In the girls’ category Uththama Silva from the champion Mahamaya team was in top form as she was responsible of setting two of the four records, the first was in the 400m U17 Freestyle where she set a new timing of 4.56.58 which erased the existing record of 5.05.30 set by Chamodi Fonseka in 2014 and the other record was in the 200m U17 Freestyle that 2.19.65 which bettered the record of 2.22.13 of Himani Vithanage set in 2014.
Vinoli Kaluarachchi of Sirimavo Bandaranayake BV achieved her third record of the meet while Ramudi Samarakoon of Visakha Vidyalaya her second of the meet. Vinoli set a new record of 31.21 in the 50m U17 Backstroke event eclipsing the record of 32.86 by Nadeera Jayasekera set in 2012 and Ramidu’s record was in the 50m U15 Breaststroke that of 34.64 which bettered the record of 36.73 set by Mineka Karunaratne in 2007.
By yesterday K.A. Hiruni Perera of Harischandra National School Negombo set three new records. The 43rd Schools Age Group Aquatic Championship conducted by the Sri Lanka Schools Aquatic Sports Association and sponsored by Nestle Lanka Ltd saw the participation of 179 schools comprising of 80 boys, 54 girls and 45 mixed schools with 2013 swimmers in the fray consisting 1715 boys and 1002 girls. The championship will come to an end today with Akila Kariyawasam, Minister of Education gracing the occasion as the chief guest.