Sri Lanka’s rising swimming star, Rushalee Dissanayake of Musaeus College, made a remarkable start to the National and Junior National Short Course Swimming Championship at the Isipathana College Swimming Pool Complex in Colombo yesterday, setting a new junior national record in the Girls Under-15 400m Freestyle.
Competing in the opening event of the day, Dissanayake clocked 4:55.52, breaking the previous record of 4:56.12, held by South Asian Games medalist Hiruki de Silva of Gateway College Colombo, set in 2019.
The day also saw a new junior national record in the Girls Under-15 4x100m relay. Rushalee Dissanayake anchored the Musaeus College relay team to victory, alongside Senuki de Silva, Naduli Gamage, and Sandhithi Ekanayake. The quartet clocked 4:26.75, breaking the previous record of 4:27.63 set by Lyceum International School Wattala in 2017.
In another exciting performance, Jayden de Silva of Stafford International School became the first junior swimmer to finish the 100m Butterfly in under one minute. The 14-year-old, competing in the Under-15 category, set a new junior national record with a time of 59.58, surpassing the previous mark of 1:01.03 set by Amodya Dulshan of Nalanda College in 2018. Additionally, AIM Haathim of St Peter’s College also bettered the previous record, finishing with a time of 1:00.04.
Unattached Zoe Tollit also had an exceptional day, breaking the Girls Under-15 50m Breaststroke junior national record twice. In the preliminary round, the 14-year-old clocked 34.87, beating the previous record of 35.61 set by Ramudi Samarakoon of Visakha Vidyalaya in 2016. Tollit went on to break her own new record in the final, finishing with a time of 35.11.
In the Girls Under-15 200m Backstroke, Julie Hope of Cyclone Aquatics set a new junior national record in both the preliminary and final events. Hope first clocked 2:30.47 in the preliminary round, before improving her time to 2:29.52 in the final, surpassing the previous record of 2:30.68 held by Minagi Rupesinghe of St Bridget’s Convent in 2019.
Overall, the opening day of the five-day competition, organized by the Sri Lanka Aquatic Sports Union (SLASU), was filled with five new junior national records. The competition will continue today at 8 AM, with finals scheduled from 3 PM onwards.
SAJEEWA JAYAKODY