The 8th Annual 5 Km Open Water Swimming Championship successfully concluded on the 20th January at the Galle Face, Colombo starting point; this was the kick off to the swimming calendar for the year 2018.
This year’s event saw the participation of 51 men contending for the top spots along with 12 women. Although the swimmers competed in their individual categories, their total points aided their representative clubs.
Out of the 51 participants, Sri Lanka Army had the most number of swimmers in their corner with a total of 20. M. Induwara pulled the most weight for the club bringing in a staggering 18 points to put Army in the top spot of the final standings. W. V Kumara and A.M Abeysingha came in third and fourth place respectively adding 26 points in total, leading to Army’s victory. St. Joseph’s College Swim Club managed to grab the second rank in the Men’s overall 5000 LC Meter Freestyle.
In the Ladies’ category, it was Lions Swim Club who managed to emerge victorious in both the individual and team events. G Nawodya finished on top with a timing of 1:27:45 earning 18 points in total. Woshini of Dolphine Aquatic Club closely followed in second, finishing with 16 points and 15 seconds behind Nawodya with a solid 1:28:00 mark. But it was two girls from Visakha who collectively scored a total of 22 points to come in second in the team event. J. Kulawardhana finished third bagging 14 points with I. Ranasinghe adding 8 points finishing 6th in the standings.
