Royal College divers excel with winning gold medals in Thailand

Royal College Diving team at the arrival

Royal diving team

Royal College diving team won 29 medals including more than eight gold medals in 15 events across all age groups in their inaugural tournament out of the Sri Lankan soil, when they participated in AITM Bangkok Schools Invitational Diving Championship held on 22 December.

The team led by two-year coloursman Isiwaruna De Silva faced the challenge from the seasoned and experienced divers in Thailand and won the overall championship.

Royal College diving team which won most local tournaments in 2018, competed in six different age groups.

The Royal College divers won seven gold medals out of the 12 springboard events and one in platform event, beating Thailand to win the overall championship.

In the under-11 event, Royalists Yusuf Shihar, Senuja Ranasinghe and Imeth de Silva won gold, silver, and bronze medals respectively both in 1m and 3m spring board events. Yusuf scored 133.3 points in 3 m event and 126.2 points in 1m event.

In the under-13 event, Venuka Kankanamge won two gold medals in both springboards events with 174.5 points and 188.8 points in 1m and 3m events respectively. Induwara Gunawardena won two silver medals in both events. Gunawardena won the gold in the platform event while Kankanamge won the silver.

Tight competition prevailed in the under-15 1 m event in which Matheesha Marambe won the gold with 242.7 points, while teammate Akindu Samaraweera finished third scoring 219.5. Marambe and Samaraweera won silver and bronze in both 3m and platform events respectively.

In under-17, Binuja Amaranayake won a silver and bronze medals in the 3m and 1m event respectively, while Movindu Katugampala won bronze in the 3m event.

Prasad Dissanayake won two golds and one silver in the under-19 events, while captain Isiwaruna De Silva won three bronze medals in the same category. Royal’s vice-captain Savinda Dissanayake won one silver and bronze in the open category.

The Thai divers managed to claim both the open events with Rungsiman Yanmongkon grabbing both titles, while Trinapas Santibut won two golds in the under-17 springboard events. In the under-15 events, Adithep Khopedkang won two golds in 1m springboard and platform diving.

The Royalist team is coached by former Sri Lanka and Royal College diving captain and Asian Games bronze medalist Chanaka Wickremesinghe, while D. A. Jayantha Gunasekara is the master-in-charge of the team.