The 45th Sri Lanka Schools Age Group Swimming Championship is to commence at the Sugathadasa Swimming Complex on June 6 with Nestle as sponsor for the 25th year.
The number of schools from eight provinces has now increased to 186 boys, girls and mixed schools while the number of entries received for the championship for 164 events (140 individual, 24 relays) totals1850 boys and 1215 girls making history for the Schools Aquatic Sport Championship.
The only province that has not forwarded entries for this year is the Northern Province while the Western Province is represented by 70 schools and the Southern Province 30 schools.
These schools have entered 180 boys relay teams and 182 girls relay teams.
There are 31 trophies on offer for six different age categories from Under-9 to 19.
Thilak Waththuhewa the president of the Sri Lanka Schools Aquatic Sports Association (SLSASA) said: “This sport became so prestigious due to Nestle’s support for swimming for the last 25 years. Their association with school sports has made it possible to find sports stars to represent the country by grooming them from the grass root level. Aquatic sport has brought honour to Sri Lanka with medals at international level”.
Additional Secretary to the Ministry of Education Asoka Senani Hewage said that the Ministry of
Education took the task of constructing 48 swimming pools in outstation schools that has helped children from outstation schools to compete in these championships.
Sunil Jayaweera the Special Advisor to the Minster of Education noted that when the schools swimming championship was conducted in the past it saw only around 200 to 250 competitors in action.
But with the commencement of constructing swimming pools in the outstations the number of competitors increased immensely and today it has gone past the four figure mark.
“With this increase of participants the organizers have made arrangements to conduct the championship for six days”, said Jayaweera.
He further said that Nestle ‘Milo’ has made special arrangements to conduct a relay event to celebrate its 25th anniversary of sponsoring the Championship in the form of a mixed relay with the participation of legendary swimmers who have brought honor to Sri Lanka by winning many medals at international meets.
The four teams that are expected to display their skills even after a long lapse are named as MILO Whales led by L.V. Fernando, Mahi Chandralal who captains the MILO seals, Nishantha de Costa who leads the MILO Dolphins while the MILO Sharks will be skippered by Julian Bolling.
As part of Nestle Lanka’s 25th sponsorship anniversary celebrations a cake was cut by two young swimmers of last year’s champion teams Brendon Fernando from St. Joseph’s College and Maheshika Hewage from Mahamaya along with last year’s two best swimmers Akalanka Peiris from St. Peter’s College and Minoli Kaluarachchi from Sirimavo Bandaranaike.