Police and SSC win Masters Swimming Championships

Angu Rajendran

Swimming has no age barrier. The Masters Swimming Championships -long course- was organized by the Sri Lanka Aquatics Association and Sports Union (SLAASU) at the Police Pool (50m pool) on the 6th of May and it was as fiercely contested as the Swimming Nationals itself.

The oldest age group was the 75 years to 79 years which was won by A A Ariyapala of the Kinross Swimming Club.

Ira Unamboowe of the SSC won the oldest age group for women - the Over 70s. Julian Dias Bandaranayake also of the SSC was the over 55 champion. Dorothy Mihindukulasuriya and Soraya Hassen. Both from the SSC were the over 40 and over 45 champions.

R M Dhammika of the Dolphin Aquatic club won the over 35 championship for women while Jill Patterson of the SSC won the over 25 age group champion. The over 30 saw joint champions - Samitha Perera of SSC and GPHS De Silva of the Army.

For the men’s section which was more keenly contested - L R K Peiris of the Sri Lanka Police was the over 25 champion, K Abeysiri and K P P P Rajapaksha both of the Sri Lanka Army were over 30 joint champions, K M Senaka and E M Nandapala of the Sri Lanka Army were over 35 and over 40 age group champions.

Wasantha Bandara of the Sri Lanka Police was the over 45 champion while the over 50 champion was R M K Karunaratne of the Sinhalese Sports Club.

Edward Vandendriesen of Fishtail Aquatic Club, Mike Anthonisz of Sinhalese Sports Club and G D De Silva of the Sri Lanka Police were all joint champions of the over 55 age group.

The Over 60 champion was Rodney Silva of the Fishtail Aquatic Club while D R Athukorale and A A Ariyapala of the Kinross Swimming Club bagged the over 70 and over 75 championships.

Overall women’s champions were Sinhalese Sports Club with 377 points followed by Sri Lanka Army with 111 and in third place Sri Lanka Police with 45 points.

In the men’s category Sri Lanka Police won the Over all championships with 445 points, Sri Lanka Army and the Fishtail Aquatic Club in second and third place with 383.5 and 201 points respectively.

“This is an annual event conducted by SLAASU and the gruelling long course events were handled well by veteran swimmers from over 14 clubs and the forces from all over the island proving that there is no age limit for swimming,” said Rodney Silva, Administrative Secretary of SLAASU, himself a Master Swimming Champion.