Upeksha sensation of the 1990s

Leslie FERNANDO

Swimming: It is the plain truth that Margaret Patel nee De Saram and Deepika Chanmugam presently residing in England and USA respectively were the best two female swimmers we had in Sri Lanka.

But remember Upeksha Silva - Sri Lanka’s swimming sensation. That aptly describes Upeksha after her continued success in the pool as well as in the sea who gave up swimming at the age of just 17 in the year 1995 after participating in the Asia Pacific Age Group Swimming Championships conducted by the SLASU, headed by Vijitha Fernando at that time at the Sugathadasa Stadium pool to follow a course in Business Management at the University of London.

All time record

She was representing Colombo International School in swimming. The swimming prodigy Upeksha, whom the writer has been following since 1992 - APAGS Championship in Beijing, China - showed her prowess when she set an all time record winning nine out of ten events at the National Swimming Champinoships conducted by NAASU in 1992. She swam for Colombo International School and helped them to emerge overall Champions with a tally of 119 points out of which Upeksha alone contributed 95.

Into the limelight

In the sea, swimming marvel Upeksha won the open two mile sea swim at Ambalangoda in 1992 and 1993. She won the youngest swimmer award at Ambalangoda in 1991. Upeksha also won the 1992 Mt. Lavinia open two mile sea swim and was also the youngest swimmer in 1991. Upeksha first came into the limelight in 1987 when she won the 33 1/3 metres dolphin stroke girls under 10 event at the Novices Swimming Championships.

Since then Upeksha never looked back. Upeksha started swimming at the tender age of six and has been winning laurels. She was a student of Musaeus College and came under Mrs. Estelle Fernando. Two weeks after joining school she was requested to take part in the inter-house swimming meet by Mrs. Fernando. The event that Upeksha took part was in a fancy event to collect the highest number of spoons underwater. Upeksha won this event with ease. She erased her fear for water from that moment.

Then she took up to competitive swimming under late Patrick Silva the SSC swimming coach. Patrick who passed away three months ago was instrumental in dragging Upeksha to take part in major events. She did so with a lot of enthusiasm.

In 1989, Upeksha joined Colombo International School and started training under E. G. A. Wilson a former Sri Lanka champion swimmer and national coach who identified the hidden talents of Upeksha and taught the finer points of swimming.

A champion swimmer

Coach Wilson made Upeksha a champion swimmer at the tender age of 13 years. Her first record breaking feat was in the 50 metres dolphin stroke in 1988 in the Pentathlon Championships. She became the under 10 champion at this meet. In the Junior Public Schools Meet she set two records and in the Age Group Meet two records. In 1989 in the under 12 age group of Junior Public Schools Championships and Age Group Meet she established two meets records apiece.

Won all events

In 1990, she won three events at the Junior Public Schools Championships establishing one record. She won all events at the 1991 Junior Public School Championships. Meanwhile, she won all her events at the Age Group Meet.

She put up an excellent display in 1992 and was placed second in the Pentathlon Meet, six records at the Age Group Meet, three records at the Public Schools Meet, three records at the inter-club meet, six records at the Short Pool Nationals and crated the biggest record when she won all nine events at the National Swimming Championships.

Upeksha was one of poolists at the 6th SAF Games held in Colombo in 1991 where she was very unlucky not to be given an event to participate. Upeksha gained national recognition in 1992 when she was picked for the 6th Asia Pacific Age Group Swimming Championships held in Beijing, China. She won two Diplomas and then participated at the APAGSC in 1993 and 1994 in Hong Kong and South Korea respectively with great success. She won several trophies at these meets.

She followed the IOC swimming scholarship in China in 1993 under top Chinese swimming coach Wang Hu. Upeksha openly declared that if our swimmers had the motivation from the Chinese swimmers we could go places. Upeksha also captained the women’s swimming teams at several international meets.

Queen of the Water

The ‘Queen of the Water’ said it had been a hard climb with sweat and toil. She is grateful to her parents Dayananda and Sandya for their encouragement and her coach E. G. A. Wilson for the guidance and assistance. It is sad indeed that Upeksha gave up swimming at an early age.