- India Wins Overall Trophy, Thailand Second
Lankan Girls’ and Boys’ Water Polo teams ended the BIMSTEC Youth Aquatic Championship 2024 in India by bagging the 13th and 14th overall medals for the island nation as they finished third in their respective play-offs and finished off at third place behind hosts India and Thailand in the final medal tally.
All the three (water polo, swimming and diving) events were held at Delhi’s Dr. Syama Prasad Mookerjee Swimming Pool Complex.
Sri Lanka’s first and only silver medal was won by Kithmi Marambe (Bishop’s College). Kithmi, the captain of the Sri Lanka Women's Diving Team won second place in the 1-metre Springboard event.
The Indian swimmers won 19 gold medals in all, and also bagged the men's and women's champion trophies. The BIMSTEC Aquatics Championships 2024 was a first-of-its-kind sports event organised by The Bay of Bengal Initiative for Multi-Sectoral Technical and Economic Cooperation, which constitutes a unique link between South and South-East Asian countries with five members from South Asia (Bangladesh, Bhutan, India, Nepal and Sri Lanka) and two members from South-East Asia (Myanmar and Thailand).
Lankan Girls continued to thrill, and won the twelfth medal (bronze) in the Women’s 4X100m Medley Relay Team comprising of Sithuki Yonara and Christina Perumal (Asian International School) Dinali Karunadasa (Visakha Vidyalaya) and Amaiah Rasool (St. Bridget's Convent) finished the finals with a timing of 4:55.09.
Sri Lanka Men’s 4X100m Relay Team comprising of Binura Talagala (Lyceum International Nugegoda), M. F. Muhammad (Zahira College), Manuja Gamage (Ananda College), and Nikhileshwaran Kumaraguru (Asian International School) won the bronze medal as they finished 3rd in the finals with a timing of 4:10.71
9th and 10th medals: Dinali Karunadasa (Visakha Vidyalaya) won her third bronze medal representing the Sri Lanka Women's Swimming clinching the third place in the 400m Individual Medley finals with a timing of 5:47.58. Sithuki Yonara (Asian International School) won 3rd place in the 200m Backstroke finals.
Here are some of the highlights from the first few days.
Sri Lanka won its first medal with Christina Perumal (Asian International School) won bronze in the 200m Breaststroke finals with a timing of 2:52.68.Dinali Karunadasa (Visakha Vidyalaya) won bronze in the 200m Individual Medley finals with a timing of 2:42.17.
Men’s 4X100m Relay Team comprising Kaveesha Silva (Ananda College), Chris Pavithra (St. Peter’s College), Manuja Gamage (Ananda College), and Binura Talagala (Lyceum International, Nugegoda) won bronze in the finals with a timing of 3:43.19.
Women’s 4X100m Relay Team comprising of Jessie Seneviratne (HFC, Bambalapitiya), Dinali Karunadasa (Visakha Vidyalaya), Tevindee Methlini (Lyceum, Wattala) and Chanudi Kumarapperuma (Lyceum, Nugegoda) won bronze in the finals of 4X100m Freestyle with a timing of 4:22.98.
Vinudi Kankanamge (Visakha Vidyalaya) in Women’s Diving won bronze in the 3-metre Springboard event.
Amaiah Rasool (St. Bridget’s Convent) in Women’s Swimming won bronze in the 200m Butterfly finals with a timing of 2:43.61.
It is noteworthy that most of the athletes who took part in the championships were Under-17 years of age who will be taking charge of the next generation of aquatic sports in the country.
The competitions, which were being hosted for participants of the under-20 age category, had events in swimming, water polo and diving. A total of 43 events took place across three aquatics disciplines, with nine trophies including overall champions being given out. Over 268 athletes from various BIMSTEC member countries participated in the event.
(Results and Pics sources: Quadrangle/Outlook India)