Ninety seven events and 400 participants at Merc swimming
View(s):Over 400 swimmers representing 30 companies from the private sector will be in action at the 7th Mercantile Swimming Championship for the President’s Trophy which will be held at the Thurstan College Swimming Complex next Sunday. Defending champions MAS Holdings will not go through an easy walk in retaining their title for the third year running against the stiff challenge from John Keells Holdings and SriLankan Airlines this time around.
Around 97 events are lined up during the day in 14 different events which will be conducted in seven different age categories. The competition organised by the Thurstan College Aquatic Club in conducted by the Sri Lanka Amateur Aquatic Sports Union, will also include three invitational races in 4x50metre Medley Relay for the schoolboys, schoolgirls and for the Armed Forces before the day’s proceedings come to an end with the awards ceremony.
“The meet will be held under two categories, the Novices, Championship and Open. We have added a new age category by introducing the Novices up to 25 years. For the first time events have been categorized as 25 years and below, 30 years and below and above 30 years. We have been compelled to increase the number of events and age categories due to the greater demand this competition has,” explained Gavin Amarasinghe, a member of Technical Committee.
The inaugural meet was held in 2007 after the organisers obtained the green light from President Mahinda Rajapaksa to name the event for the President’s Trophy. Ever since the overall top three positions have been dominated by five leading companies in Sri Lanka, namely defending champs MAS Holdings, last year’s runners-up John Keells Holdings, SriLankan Airlines who were placed third in 2012, Unilever and HSBC who were placed third in 2011 and 2010 respectively. The inaugural meet was won by John Keells Holdings who went on to win the overall championship for three consecutive years until 2010 before being topped by MAS Holdings in 2011. MAS Holdings were the runners-up in 2010 and 2009 and were placed third in 2007 and 2008.
SriLankan Airlines could not finish among the top three for three years from 2009 but were the runners-up in 2007 and 2008. Unilevers were placed third twice, in 2009 and 2011 and HSBC’s only success in the meet came in 2010. – NA
comments powered by Disqus