Royal divers emerge champions in Sri Lanka Schools’ games
Royal College diving team emerged champions in the recently concluded 45th Sri Lanka Schools Aquatic Championship held in Sugathadasa Stadium, Colombo. The winners scored mammoth 209 points followed by Thurstan College (39 points) and S. Thomas' College, Mount Lavinia (31 points). The team was led by third year coloursman Isiwaruna de Silva with Sawinda Dissanayake as his deputy. Royal collected their points across all the age groups from Under-9 to Under-19. In the Under-9 category Minuga Hettigamage won third place in the 1-metre spring board. Senuja Ranasinghe dived to win first in 3-metre spring board and third in 1-metre spring board in the Under-11 category, while Yusuf Shihar won second place in both 1-metre and 3-metre spring boards.
In Under-13 age group, Induwara Gunawardena collected 24 points for Royal College with one gold medal and two silver medals, while Venuka Kankanamge and Thenuwan Meegalle added 10 and 5 points respectively. Matheesha Marambe, who won the best diver trophy in Under-15 age category, became first in 1-metre spring board, 3-metre spring board, and platform. Yamith Jayakody and Akindu Samaraweera contributed with 10 and 5 points respectively in the same age group for Royal College. Under-17 best diver Abhisheka Meegalle won one gold, one, silver, and one bronze medal each for Royal while Nithila Illukpitiya in the same age group won silver medal in the 3-metre spring board and bronze in 1-meter spring board.
Seniors in Under-19 contributed the most points for the college with Dulanjan Fernando, a third year coloursman and a national team diver represented the country in the 10th Asian Diving championship in Japan, won three gold medals in all the events he participated. He was adjudged the best diver in the Under-19 category. Prasad Dissanayake, also a three-year coloursman and the last year captain of Royal College, went on to win three silver medals in all three categories he participated while captain Isiwaruna de Silva won bronze in 3-metre spring board. Seniors Prasad Dissanayake and Dulanjan Fernando have also excelled in Singapore National Championship two years ago. Dissanayake won one gold, two bronze and silver medals in Singapore while Fernando won three silver medals.
Abhisheka Meega l l e, Matheesha Marambe, Induwara Gunawardena, and Nithila Illukpitiya also have participated in the Singapore Nationals. The team is coached by a former Royalist and Sri Lankan diving team captain Chanaka Wickremesinghe who had represented the country in both World Diving Championship in 1999 and 2002 held respectively in Czech Republic and Canada. The 2002 Royal Crown winner is an Asian Bronze Medallist at Asian Diving Championship in Chinese Taipei in 2000 and was the coach for the 21st Commonwealth Games held this year in Gold Coast.
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