Ramudi’s double records boost Visakha on course to major upset
Ramudi Samarakoon of Visakha Vidyalaya competes in the Under-18 200m breaststroke final, Ramudi renewed her own record Pic by Priyanka Samaraweera
Visakha Vidyalaya, Colombo created a major upset in the ongoing Schools Swimming Championships, leading the table with 348 points and toppling the reigning champions Mahamaya College Kandy on the third day at the Sugathadasa Stadium Swimming Complex yesterday.
Mahamaya College, who have won the championships continuously for 20 years accumulated only 294 points to finish in second spot at the 46th edition of the four-day meet. The relay events are scheduled for today.
Visakhian Ramudi Samrakoon, who won two gold medals yesterday, set two new records out of the six meet records shattered on day three. Samarakoon clocked 2:52.19 in the Under-18 200m breaststroke final improving her previous record of 2:56.17 minutes by three minutes and 98 seconds, which is a fantastic effort by the emerging swimmer .
She also clocked 34.90 seconds in the 50m breaststroke erasing her previous record of 36.53 seconds.
Emerging freestyle swimmer of Visakha Vidyalaya, Sandu Savindi, who set records at last month’s Age Group Championships, claimed two new records in both 800m freestyle and 200m Individual Medley in the Under-18 group. Savindi, clocked 10:19.05 minutes in the 800m freestyle and recorded 2:37.94 minutes in the 200m IM on day two.
S Thomas’ College Mount Lavinia’s, P Arukshan competing in the Under-18 200m IM, set a new record timing of 2:17.43 minutes. Arukshan, a strong contender, erased Heshan Unamboowe’s record of 2:17.92, that the Olympian set in 2009.
Ganga Seneviratne of Visakha Vidyalaya took the 200m backstroke Gold with a record breaking time of 2:31.26 minutes. Seneviratne shattered her school’s backstroke specialist Vinoli Kaluarachchi’s record, set a couple of years ago.
Another Unamboowe record was renewed by Shevinda de Silva of St Joseph’s College, Maradana. De Silva, won the Under-18 200m backstroke in 2:16.57 minutes.
New records on day three
Under-18 400m freestyle: Deava Rashmi of Lyceum International School Wattala 4:55.03
Under-20 400m breaststroke: Sandu Savindi Visakha Vidyalaya 4:56.00
Under-18 100m freestyle: Hiruki de Silva Gateway College, Dehiwala 1:03.09
Under-18 100m butterfly: Sandev Senaratne of Ananda College 57.12