CEPASA in the pool on January 2010

S.M. Jiffrey ABDEEN - Kandy Sports corr.

Swimming extravaganza is in store when the annual swimming meet of the Central Province organised by the Central Province Aquatic Sports Association (CEPASA) which is affiliated to the Sri Lanka Aquatic Sports Union (SLASU) starts at the swimming complex of the Peradeniya University on January, 23, 2010.

This meet was earlier scheduled to be held on December 19 but had to be postponed due to the sudden closure of the schools in the Central Province and the entries could not be processed.

Central Province schools have produced champion swimmers with both Trinity College and Mahamaya Girls College producing top grade swimmers with some of them participating in the SAF Games and even Sri Lanka's swimming captain Heshan Unamboowe is from Trinity College.

This swimming meet will cover the districts of Kandy, Nuwara Eliya and Matale and schools like the defending champions Trinity College (boys) and Mahamaya Girls College (girls), Gateway International School, Girls High School, Hillwood Girls College, Colombo International School, Kingswood College, Dharmaraja College, St. Sylvesters College, Jinaraja College, Gampola, Zahira College, Gampola, Vijaya College, Matale, S. Thomas' College, Matale, Eccle International School, Vision International School, St. Joseph's Girls College, Gampola, and the Peradeniya University will participate in this swimming meet.

Some of the top swimmers who are expected to participate are Heshan Unamboowe, Chanuka Wickremasinghe, Prageeth Wanigasekera, Sehan de Silva, Kanishka Hulangamuwa Dashan Senaratne, Damith Karunaratne, Migara Hulangamuwa, Thavesh Edusuriya, Imuditha Athurupana, Sineru Auwardt and Sapumal Senanayake from Trinity College.

From Gateway International School it will be the Uduwawala sisters Nelum and Sewwandi who are expected to shine. They will certainly miss their star swimmer Minuruwani Samarakoon who has now joined Girls High School, Kandy to complete her local G.C.E. Advanced Level Examination in the Science stream.

But it will be the mermaids from Mahamaya Girls College who should make a big splash of it with top swimmers like Hansani Weeratunga, Madhavi Weeratunga, Heshani Unamboowe, Sunethra Wijeratne, Imani Abeykoon, Ayeshika Jayawardena, Dewmini Kularatne, Kavishka de Silva doing honours for them. Hillwood Girls College will have Shalani Rajakaruna, Sachinthani Dissanayake and Hiruni de Soysa to make an impression at this meet.

CEPASA is finding hard to get sponsors but they are confident that they will get the required funds to conduct this meet which will be held for the fifth successive year.

A Maldivian national and sports benefactor Ahamed Muthasim Adnan who is an Attorney at Law practising in the Republic of Maldives has made an initial contribution towards this meet and with this as the nucleus the organisers are hopeful that local sponsors will also rally round as in the past to make this meet a success.

The events which will be worked off at this Age Group meet are under 10, under 12, under 14, under 16 and over 16 years of age for Breast Stroke, Butterfly Stroke, Free Style, Dolphin and Individual Medley and the open events.

Entry forms could be had from the Vice President of CEPASA Janaka de Silva at the CEPASA Office at 18 1/1 Hill Street, Kandy.

Janaka de Silva together with swimming coaches of repute U.G. Sugath and U.G. Pemlath are endeavouring their best to make this event a grand success as in the past when major sponsors like Milo and Nutella sponsored this event in a very big way.