After a Covid-induced hiatus of two years, Killer Whale Aquatics, a pillar of absolute dominance in Sri Lankan swimming, faced their first defeat since 2015 at the recently concluded 2022 LC National and Junior National Aquatic Championships. This year’s champion in the Men’s category, the seasoned and well-experienced SL Army Aquatics, won the title by just 12 points, highlighting a hard-fought battle between the two teams which served as a call back to the days of intense rivalry between SL Navy Aquatics and KWA that spearheaded Sri Lankan swimming’s rapid growth in the early 2010s. This championship ended a seven-year reign with five consecutive national titles for KWA, and though they will certainly not be content in this loss, the outcome was not without its merits.

Due to a halt on Sri Lankan swimming’s regularly scheduled operations over the past two years, the team competing for KWA was remarkably young, comprised mostly of those with little to no experience at the senior national level. Getting back to a semblance of normalcy within the swimming community has been a painstakingly laborious process, but despite the extreme hardships faced by all athletes around the country over these past few years, the results of this year’s Long Course Nationals are nothing if not an encouraging sign of progress.

A total of five new national and junior national records were established by KWA. In the Men’s 800m Freestyle, Anusara Abeygunawardane, the current KWA Men’s Captain, bettered his own national record by nearly five seconds, finishing with an incredible time of 8:49.80. He also became the newest member of the ‘sub-2-minute-mark club’ in the 200m Freestyle, a feat which would have placed him in extremely rare air (or more pertinently put, rare water) less than ten years ago. Abeygunawardane is the unassuming product of KWA’s Long Term Athlete Development (LTAD) model; proving, yet again, that an investment of patience in the early stages of an athlete’s journey is crucial to one’s long-term success and will pay vast dividends as they grow older.

Adeetha Siriwardena, a young and prodigious member of KWA, broke two junior national records. One came in the Boy’s 50m Backstroke with a time of 29.23 seconds, erasing an eight-year-old record set by the current Sri Lankan national record holder, Akalanka Pieris, back in 2014. Adeetha’s other record was in the Boy’s 100m Backstroke, breaking Shevinda De Silva’s (St. Joseph’s College) six-year-old record by almost two seconds, finishing in a blistering time of 1:04.06. Subsequently, to honour his achievements, Adeetha was awarded a full athletic scholarship by his school, Wesley College Colombo, a gracious act that must be commended in this time of financial uncertainty.

Ramudi Samarakoon, a member of KWA since its inception in 2010, where she began her journey in KWA’s Learn-To-Swim Program, Swim America, broke Mineka Karunaratne’s 14-year-old record in the Women’s 100m Breaststroke by a very narrow margin, finishing with a time of 1:14.54. Samarakoon, former Women’s captain at KWA, has been one of Sri Lanka’s most consistently successful athletes in the pool since 2016. This was her first personal best time in over six years, a triumph over personal tribulations and a tale of both perseverance and determination. In quite an admirable effort, she also led the KWA women’s team to second place this year; a team of four young women, severely outnumbered and outgunned by the victors of this year’s women’s championship, Visakha Vidyalaya. In the 4x50m Medley Relay, Samarakoon led her teammates (Akithmi Wasalathanthri, Minuri Bartholamuse, and Anithra Johnpillai) to victory, breaking KWA’s fifth and final national record at this year’s LC Nationals, with a time of 2:10.24.

Aside from the unique success Anusara, Adeetha and Ramudi shared, the rest of the swimmers at KWA, whether representing school or club, capped off their season with almost all of them having recording best times in each of their events. That is both a testament to the fortitude of these swimmers, as well as a product of the hard work of the KWA coaching staff, headed by Manoj Abeysinghe. Under these trying circumstances, the performances of these athletes are noteworthy. One can only look to the future and wonder what else these young champions have in store.