The Daily Morning Sports spoke exclusively to the captains of Sri Lanka’s junior swimming, diving, and water polo teams who are about to take part at the BIMSTEC Youth Aquatics Championships in New Delhi India from 7 to 14 of this month. The Lankan athletes will compete against India, Nepal, Bangladesh, Myanmar, Thailand, and Bhutan in their respective events. Comprising mostly of Under-17 and a few Under-20 athletes, this young Lankan outfit is confident in creating historic triumphs in the waters of our neighbouring nation.
Let’s take a sneak peek into the preparations of the teams.
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Water Polo
Anuga Handunpathirana – Water Polo Captain (boys’)
“We’ve been training really hard close to four times a week and also in the meantime did quite a lot of preparations on creating different game plans, attack plans and defence plans. And I would say we got probably the best team right now where all the players are in their peak performance.”
Boys’ Water Polo team led by Royalist Anuga Handunpathirana will be taking to the pool to play their matches tomorrow (7) and Thursday (8) February. The team was selected after the conclusion of the local Under-17 tournament recently, hence comprises a fresh and young outfit with all the members touring in their maiden tour except one player (M. Nawaz) who toured previously with the open (senior) outfit.
“This time we are trying to achieve at least the top three spots. Because we’ve been training hard I can see the whole lot of the boys working hard. And the coaching staff has been very helpful. They’ve been helping us with almost everything from nutrition to hydration and what not.”
The 15-member team with two reserves includes a major share from Royal College (9), four players from S. Thomas’ College and two from D.S. Senanayake College with Yashoda Wasalage and Chandula Fernando as coaches.
Water Polo – (boys) Anuga Handunpathirana (Captain), Abiru Galaboda, Bihandu Katugampola, Lithum Karunasena, Vinuda Somakeerthi, Final Wellappili, Tanishq de Silva, Ramiru Aluthge, Shehran Nawaz, Anuga Perera, Ahmed Barry, Dinuk Wickramasinghe, Imaad Ismath, Umair Faris, Shihab Shiyam
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Chrishael Robin – Water Polo Captain (girls’)
Chrishael, schooling at Ladies’ College, and her team have been training for three months and hope to give their best at the BIMSTEC championship in India. The team is coached under the guidance of the former Thomian duo, multi-sportsman Sachitha Jayatilake and Keshan Munasinghe.
How were the pre-tourney preparations and tell us a little about the team combo.
We’ve been training really hard almost everyday, for the past three months, with six sessions per week at the LC pool, Air Force and ‘Suga’. We hope to give our best at the upcoming tour.
The team combination is a set of players who are very talented and equally divided with five each from Ladies’ College, Visakha Vidyalaya, and Bishop’s College. This is also the first time all of us are touring together. But a few months ago in August, around 5-6, we participated in the Hong Kong National Tour with the senior outfit.
How’s the transition from the tour with the seniors and now leading the junior unit, and your target?
I think that with the skills we’ve learned, we’ve taught them (junior players) a lot. And our coaches have been really supportive, we are all equal here. We know and are very aware of what we’re doing in the pool. Our goal is basically to win or get placed at the tour, considering the many countries taking part, and also to learn and execute what our coaches have taught us as well as to improve our skills and knowledge on the sport.
As an island nation, where do you see aquatic sports in SL?
Sri Lanka Aquatic Sports Union (SLASU) has supported us in many ways to help us for this tour. I think there can be more improvements because only three schools take part in competitive girls water polo in Sri Lanka, so introducing the game to all corners of the island and schools would be a great initiative to popularise the sport.
Water Polo – (girls) Chrishael Robin (Captain), Sinali Rathnayake, Poojani Sankalpana, Aashi Perera, Rohansa Vidyarathne, Sitharaah Zuhair,Tharuki Kalansooriya, Imaaya Perera, Anissa Dias, Arani Dorabawila, Treasa Adams, Mehansa Jayarathne, Sayuni Dadagamuwa, Dulmi Dias, Selina Silva
Diving
The Junior National Diving squad is nurtured and guided under the safe hands of Shanaka Wickramasinghe who is immensely experienced as a coach for over two decades. The diving contingent comprises nine athletes – five boys and four girls. We inquired the Marambes, captain-sibling duo about the aspirations and goals of both the girls’ and boys’ outfits taking part in the tour.
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Matheesha Marambe – Diving Captain (boys’)
Our preps have been going well, I must say. We’ve had morning sessions pretty much for about a month now as part of the national team. We’ve all been training quite well and I believe that this is the best team we could have put together for such an event. I believe we will try to achieve as much as possible. If we can place on a podium finish, it’s ideal. But all of them have put in the work, I’m pretty sure they can all do really well. We’ll have to wait and see although I do believe that they can and they will place in their events.
Interestingly all the five divers are from Royal College with the vastly experienced Shanaka Wickramasinghe as head coach who is also the head coach of Royal and we’ve been training at ‘Suga’ as part of the National team.
According to Marambe, all the divers have been on at least one tour prior. So they are quite experienced in handling an international event and he’s confident that his boys will give out all their best.
Diving – (boys) Matheesha Marambe (Captain), Mikhail Jayaweera, Yusuf Shihar, Ruel Wickramaratne, Venuka Kankanamge
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Kithmi Marambe – Diving Captain (girls’)
It’s a very young outfit that you’re leading as captain, how has been the lead up to the BIMSTEC championships?
Of course, it’s been the same as with the boys team because we’ve been practising together as we have the same head coach Shanaka Wickramasinghe. We also have Olympic diver Janaka Biyanwila who’s taking part as a judge, and he has also been occasionally dropping by to help coach the team and share his expertise.
We have four girls taking part in this tour. Two from Bishop’s College including me and one each from Visakha Vidyalaya and St. Bridget’s Convent. All of our divers are well experienced as they’ve also been on at least one tour prior. So I think they’ll do pretty well this time around. We will try our best to achieve medals in the championship. I hope and I’m sure that our team will give their maximum best to make mother Lanka proud.
Kithmi, diving especially in Sri Lanka doesn’t get much attraction when compared to the world, what do you think will make this sport reach a wider audience?
I think we could use a bit more publicity, but also we need a few more coaches, maybe a few more training equipment because it’s very technical and most of the technical aspects cannot be precisely achieved with how we are training currently.
Diving – (girls) Kithmi Marambe (Captain), Kisara Ranawaka, Vinudi Kankanamge, Shania Silva
Swimming
The highest number of athletes will be displaying their skills in the waters of Delhi in swimming at the BIMSTEC championships. Sri Lanka, having had prestige amongst the South Asian swimming circuit, have a lot to prove with a talented bunch of youngsters at the tour.
A student of Sirimavo Bandaranaike Vidyalaya, a powerhouse in swimming, Nabhashie Perera leading the girls outfit, is a seasoned campaigner, having taken part in close to four international tours.
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Nabhashie Perera – Swimming Captain (girls’)
With a versatile group of 17 girls, our team has put a lot of work leading up to this championship, with months of training together and also we were fortunate to be a part of motivational programmes to mentally and psychologically prepare ourselves for this all-important tour. We have girls from Ladies’ College, Bishop’s College, Visakha Vidyalaya, St. Bridget’s Convent and Sirimavo Bandaranaike Vidyalaya make up the pool of 17. All the swimmers are well-rounded with plenty of experience in the waters both locally and internationally taking part in many tournaments throughout their career. Our main target and goals in this tour would be to clinch as many medals as possible and also break the existing national records in our respective races.
Swimming - (girls) Nabashie Perera (Captain), Minagi Rupasinghe, Vandani Fernando, Sithuki Yonara, Christina Perumal, Jessie Senevirathne, Chanudi Kumarapperuma, Dinali Karunadasa, Tevindee Methlini, Buddhima Senanayake, Navanjana Siriwardena, Neoma Kahandawa, Amaiah Rasool, Shenushi Vihanga, Kashika Vishalini, Seya Kariyawasam, Poojani Rathnayake, Tricia de Rose
Meanwhile the boys’ contingent is led by co-captains, Kaveesha and Anusara who are leading a diverse set of lads from 15 schools and clubs combined to reach greater heights in Sri Lanka swimming. Kaveesha coming from Ananda College and Anusara from Wycherley International School have got a lot of exposure in them and most importantly having competed together since childhood, they both have a good understanding of managing and leading a team together with shared responsibility.
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Swimming Co-Captains (boys’) Kaveesha Silva and Anusara Abeygoonawardane
We have 20 boys going this time around. And that’s all from a combination of all clubs, schools and districts, So it’s a really good diverse combination. There’s a lot of aspiring juniors which is great to see. Because a lot of representation goes into BIMSTEC compared to World Championships or other global events where only a handful could experience, it’s great that as many as two lads could test their skills and conditions outside the island. Also it’s really great to work side-by-side as brothers because we’ve been knowing each other for ages which really helps us bring this team together and build further.
Of course when it comes to accolades we aim to win as many medals as we can obviously. Also most importantly personal improvement, personal growth for each individual to get their best timing at each event, and do better than they did before. That will be the goal.
Swimming – (boys) Kaveesha Silva, Anusara Abeygoonewardena, Manuja Gamage, Binura Thalagala, Lohan Samarasinghe, Muhammad Fidhyan, Vinul Senanayake, Akash Prabashwara, Chris Pavithra, Abdurrahman Faham, Adeetha Siriwardena, Asif Imran, Yonal de Silva, Vihanga Caldera, Shaqib Riyaj, Yashith Wijesundara, Nikileshwaran Kumaraguru , Nesandu Ekanayake, Senitha Deenal, Shehan Siriwardena, Okitha Gunasekera, Senitha Thenuwara