Sports

Sampath and Prabha win two-mile sea swim

BY LESLIE Fernando

T. K. SAMPATH Weerakkody of Sri Lanka Army, the champion long distance swimmer of Sri Lanka retained the men's title and Prabha Madhave Dharmadasa of Asian International School who is the holder of most number of Sri Lanka records won the women's title for the first time at the 68th annual open two-mile sea swim held at the Mount Lavinia bay yesterday.

The event was sponsored by Mount Lavinia Hotel and Master Divers (Pvt) Ltd and conducted by Sri Lanka Aquatic Sports Union.

Soldier Sampath, a tsunami victim who lost all his belongings including his house at Ambalangoda in the Boxing Day tsunami disaster and who also won the two-mile sea swim held at Amalangoda last Sunday romped home an easy winner.

He led from the start to turn amongst 216 men's swimmers and finished 'clocking' 43.25 secs. It was so easy for him that Sampath did the back and the butterfly stroke with 200 metres to the finish. Dharshaka Tennakoon of Lyceum International finished second clocking 46.15 secs, Eshan Fernando of S. Thomas' College third with 46.25 secs. foreigner from Georgia representing Rainbow AC fourth 46.28 secs and T. H. Kalan Sameera of Dolphin AC fifth 47.66 secs. Sampath carried away the John Wilson Challenge trophy.

In the women's event, three times winner and favourite Uma Kavya Dharmadasa (AIS) did not swim due to reasons known to her but her sister Prabha won the women's race in a close tussle beating Imara Gahim of Elizabeth Moir School.

It was a very close tussle between Prabha timed 40.32 secs and Imara 49.32 secs. K. G. G. Dilanjali of Kularatne Vidyalaya was third 54.57 secs, Hansani Weerathunga of Rainbow AC fourth - 56.06 secs and Thakshila Daluwatta of Sri Sumangala Vidyalaya Panadura fifth 56.25 secs. Prabha was presented with the Dennis Flamer Caldera trophy.

The notable feature of the meet was that 9-year-old Mohamed Sajid Ajmal of Royal College who finished 60th overall won the youngest swimmer award for boys. Ajmal a promising swimmer won this award after 15 long years for Royal. He was awarded the Bata Challenge Cup and Diana Challenge Cup.

The other awards:

Oldest Swimmer (men): G. G. Siriwardena (Otter AC).

Oldest swimmer (women): Dilini Senaviratne (Sri Lanka Air Force).

Youngest Swimmer (girls): Eshani Erandika Senanayake (Samudra Devi Balika, Nugegoda).

Disabled Champion Swimmer: K. V. C. Priyadharshan (Sri Lanka Army).

Sri Lanka Army won the Inter-Services Championships (IDM Vantwest Trophy), Highest Aggregate of Points (Half Past Nine Challenge Trophy) and Men's Overall Championships (Mount Lavinia Hotel Trophy).

Women's Overall Championships (Colombo Mayor's Challenge Trophy) P. de S. Kularatne Vidyalaya, Ambalangoda.

Ariyaseela Wikremanayake, Chairman, Master Divers (Pvt) Limited was the chief guest while Mahendra Hulangamuwa, Resident Manager, Mount Lavinia Hotel was the guest of honour.