Army swimmers steal the limelight

by Leslie FERNANDO

SWIMMING: Sri Lanka Army Swimmers carried away the major honours winning both the men's and women's overall titles at the Masters Open Short Course swimming meet conducted by the Interim Committee of SLASU held at the SSC swimming pool yesterday.

In the men's overall Army collected 310 points to take the top spot while Fishtail Aquatic Club, Mutwal, one of the oldest swimming club in the country finished runner-up with 262 points. They only fielded eight veteran swimmers. Last year's champions SSC took the third place with 167 points.

Sri Lanka Army swimmers also dominated in the women's events coming in first with 146 points while SSC had 89 points. Army swimmers were coached by a former Sri Lanka swimmer Keerthi Edirisinghe.

The meet was conducted in nine age categories and Sri Lanka Army and Fishtail Aquatic Club had more individual winners.

The results:

Men: 25-29 years - M. G. M. Anura Bandara (SLARMY), 30-34 - M. G. Dissanayake (Army) 35-39 - R. K. Priyantha (Army) 40-44 - Jayantha Hettiarachchi (Fishtail AC) 45-49 - Kantha Karunaratne (SSC) 50-54 A. M. de Mel (Fishtail AC) 55-59 - Edward Vandendriesen (Fishtail AC) 60-64 - Rodney Silva (Fishtail AC) 65-69 (No participants), 70-74 - D. R. Athukorale (Kinross Swimming and Life Saving Club).

Women: 25-29 years: Y. M. R. Dissanayake (Army) 30-34 G. P. S de Silva (Army) 35-39 - W. D. P. Seneviratne (Army) 40-44 - Shanika Ratnayake (SSC).

The champions in both men and women were awarded the Sri Lanka Aquatic Sports Union Trophies.