The Western Province swim team bagged a total of 67 medals at the 42nd National Sports Festival with 14 records being shattered on the final day of the meet.
The final day of the swimming series of the 42nd National Sports Festival was held at the Sugathadasa Indoor Swimming Pool Complex with the active participation of top swimmers representing their respective provinces.
The Western Province team dominated the waters with Ramudi Samarakoon continuing her winning streak into the second day of the meet by winning Gold in the 200M Freestyle Relay and the 200M Breaststroke, clocking a record time of 2:51.90 for the latter, beating L M Fernando’s record of 3:04.32, set in 2015.
Hiruni Perera also continued to excel in the second day of the meet, winning a Gold medal for 50M Butterfly for Western Province, totaling her count to 3 medals for the course of the meet.
Navy swimmer Kanitha Munasinghe won his 3rd and 4th medals for the meet in the 50M Freestyle and 200M Freestyle Relay, in which the Western Province set a record by clocking a time of 1:42.02, beating the benchmark of 1:43.00 set by their 2015 team.
Imesh Chathuranga also continued his glory to day two of the meet, winning Gold for the 200M Butterfly, totaling his medal count to 3 Gold medals and 1 Silver, for the course of the meet.
Ishani Senanayake continued to turn heads on day two by taking Gold in the first and last events of the day. The National swimmer set a new record for 400M Freestyle, clocking a time of 4:54.30 and beating her predecessor J U I Silva, who set a record time of 4:59.84 in 2015. Ishani and her team also placed 1st in the 200M Freestyle Relay that concluded the day’s proceedings.
Vinoli Kaluarachchi was named the Women’s Individual Champion and concluded the meet with 4 Gold medals in total, two of which were new meet records. The excelling swimmer clocked a time of 2:31.25 for the 200M Breaststroke, and a time of 31.74 for 50M Backstroke, shattering Nadeera Jayasekara’s 32.28 record set in 2012.
Former Peterite Akalanka Peiris bagged two more medals on day two of the meet, totaling his count to 4 Gold medals for the entirety of the event. His outstanding performance was rewarded when he was named Men’s Individual Champion for the year, holding three new records in 200M Medley Relay with a time of 1:53.05, 50M Butterfly with a time of 25.81 and 50M Backstroke with a time of 27.94.
The Western Province team went above and beyond, concluding the meet with a total of 32 Gold, 18 Silver and 17 Bronze medals, whilst the Central Province swimmers took home a total of 15 medals. The North Western province concluded the meet with 9 medals and the Southern and Sabaragamuwa provinces won 4 medals each.
