The Sri Lankan School’s diving championships took place on the 20-22nd of June at the Sughathadasa Stadium Swimming Complex.
The diving championships were held parallel to the inter school aquatic championships organized by the aquatic sports association.
Though diving isn’t at the top of our mind call as we refer to aquatic sports the enthusiasm from the participants wasn’t any less. Representing their schools all had one goal: deliver the best performance and gain maximum points to the school making them the championship winners. The events which took place were Under 9 – Under 19 1 Meter Spring Board, 3 Meter Spring Board and Platform events for both boy’s and girl’s.
As usual, the youngest were to kick off the competition. The events ranging from Under 9 age category to Under 13 age category weren’t graded on a ranking basis but measured at qualifying standards, but the overall points contributed to the school total. Taking part in the 1 Meter Spring Board event from the junior category (below the age of 13) Best performances – based on points – were recorded from Unduwara Gunawardana, Abhishek Bandara and Savinda Dissanayake of Royal College, Vinaya Perea of Bishops College, Seneshi Herath of Visaka Vidyalaya and finally Shenali Herath of Sirmiva Bandaranayake Balika Vidyala.
The competitive rounds came as Under 15 Boy’s – 1 Meter Spring Board kicked off. Dulanjan Fernando won the championships in this round with 156 points having a drastic difference with the second place of over 50 points. Also it’s notable all top three ranks in this round were participants from Royal College which made the final ranks sound rather intra-school. Moving into details of the senior category Nivanka Nanayakkara of Bishop’s College won 1 Meter Spring Board Under15 event with 88 points.
Considering the Under 17 and Under 19 1 meter Spring board events the highlighting performance was by Sahan Peiris of Royal College with 244.15 points. It was the only performance which surpassed the 200 points limit for a spring board event. The rest of the championships were distributed among St. Bridget’s Convent and Visaka Vidyalaya. On the same note Yashodha De Silva with 176 points owned the highest score in a female spring board event category.
Moving on to the 3 Meter Spring Board the junior rounds were held in similar pattern based on qualifying standards and apart from the already highest scorers in the 1 Meter spring board rounds Panchali Hewamanna and Chenuri Denando topped the scores. In the senior category Dulanjan was back in the attach with the best performance along with Nivanka at the girls’ end. Add-ons to the ranks were Waleed Uwais(Royal College), Yashodha Se Silva(St. Bridget’s Convent) and Nethmi Liyanage(Visaka Vidyala).
Summing up the overall performances inclusive of platform rounds the distinguished winners were Royal College in the boys’ category with 308 overall points. At the second place with 41 points was St. Joseph’s College and Delassalle College was at third place with 36. The girls’ champions were Bishop’s College with 100 points. The first and seconds runners up were St. Bridget’s Convent and Visaka Vidyalaya Respectively.
