Gateway’s Amrith shatters famous record
Colombo International School’s Dhinal Weerasinghe, who won the Under-20 100m butterfly gold medal, in action - Pic by M.D. Nissanka
Amrith Perera of Gateway College broke Kyle Abeysinghe’s 200m Individual Medley meet record at the 25th edition of Sri Lanka Inter-international Schools Swimming Championship, organised by the Asian International School. The event is currently being worked off at the Sugathadasa Stadium Swimming Pool Complex in Colombo.
Perera, competing in Under-20 age category, clocked 2 minutes and 19.62 seconds to erase the previous record of 2 minutes and 41.31 seconds set by the famous Kyle Abeysinghe last year.
In addition four new meet records were established on the first day as Nikhileshwaran Kumaraguru of Asian International School also accounted for a new 50m backstroke record in the Under-14 category, with a timing of 31.23 seconds. He shattered the record of 31.35 seconds set by Alvin Arulmaran in 2016.
Other two records were set up in Under-10 age category by Dewvin Yaneth of Royal Institute and Kewan Ranepura of Lyceum Ratnapura in 200m IM and 100m freestyle events respectively.
Yaneth broke a six-year-old record with a time of 3 minutes and 05.70 seconds to win the gold medal. He erased the previous record of 3:08.53 set by Savin Kaluarachchi in 2013.
Ranepura clocked 1:15.70 in the 100m freestyle event to shatter the previous record of 1:17.26, also established by Savin Kaluarachchi in 2017.
Meanwhile, Lyceum International School, Nugegoda leads the points table with 18 medals. They have won seven gold, seven silver and four bronze medals. Lyceum Panadura, won six gold and four silver medals to settle in at place second with 10 medals while Colombo International School secured third place with five gold, three silver and one bronze — accumulating nine medals.
The International Schools of Sri Lanka (TISSL), the organisation for international schools in the country, fielded 790 athletes for this year’s championship among them, 350 are male swimmers and 440 girls were in line for glory. They represent 19 international school teams.
Hosts Asian International Schools are fielding the most number of swimmers with 41 while Lyceum Nugegoda and Lyceum Wattala have 35 swimmers each in their teams. Gateway Colombo have also entered with 34 swimmers.
Five swimmers who are in the South Asian Games (SAG) squad are taking part in the meet. They are Colombo International School’s Revan Seneviratne and Bhakthi Karunasena, Colombo Gateway College’s Stephan Perera and Hiruki de Silva and Shazna Maahir of Lyceum Wattala.
All the boys’ single events were held yesterday and the events for girls and relays are scheduled for today, with SAG swimmers Bhakthi Karunasena and Shazna Maahir set to swim on the final day of the two-day silver jubilee meet.