By Channaka de Silva
After a sixteen-year imperious domination of Sri Lanka's school swimming, S. Thomas' college is still to see their reputation cracking up in the water sport. But, the famous S. Thomas' swimming pool is literally cracking up. So, it will not take long for Thomian swimming to perish without a pool to practice on, unless an unfortunate tug-of-war between two factors of the college establishment ends. Authorities must be fast to react to the call because their past follies have already seen the historic pool fall to its present state of ruination.

Winning the Sri Lanka schools' swimming championships fifteen times in the last sixteen years (only a Josephian victory in 1995 disturbed their winning streak), is no mean achievement by any standard. But the swimming pool which helped the school to these great heights, is almost at the end of its life time and if the problems are not ironed out, in a matter of another few days, S. Thomas' will have no swimming pool to boast about which they did for the past 64 years.

Is the school which produced four prime ministers and so many distinguished other men to the country, short of money ? that is something the college will be the last on earth to experience, with such strong support from the die-hard old boys.

HARDLY BELIEVABLE
The story is hardly believable. The money is already in the kitty but something ridiculous is keeping still an ambitious plan of the old boys to upgrade the pool to international standards.

According to Vijitha Fernando, the Technical Adviser of the special swimming pool committee appointed by the Old Boys Association to improve the standard of the swimming pool, the stumbling block has been a delay by the Board of Governors of the school to give the "go ahead" to the programme.

The reasons are best known to the Board itself but Fernando said the reason should be with the swimming pool committee's refusal to accept a Board member as the chairman of the committee as the Board had directed.

Mr. Fernando

Fernando said they did not want anybody from the Board of Governors to be the chairman of the Swimming pool committee simply because "They do not know anything about swimming or pools". Fernando was the president of the National Amateur Aquatic Sports Union (NAASU) when Sri Lanka hosted the prestigious Asia Pacific Age Group Swimming Championships in Colombo and he should know.

It all started in late 1995 with the constant breakdowns of the rusted-up, ages-old pumping machinery which rotates the water. These breakdowns of the essential part caused frequent closures of the pool. Also the pool started to crack up from all sides and temporary plastering work kept it from braking apart. Tiles at the bottom gave way to huge leaks and thousands of gallons of water began to seep into the ground. Patching up did not help much and problems at the pool had started to mount when the old boys first started to take note of what was happening.

IMMENSE HISTORICAL VALUE
The pool, constructed in 1934 has an immense historical value as the oldest swimming pool in the country in addition to being the cradle for many internationally famed swimmers including present Sri Lanka captain Ghefari Dulapandan.

Dulapandan is also a member of the Committee which immediately drew up a plan to upgrade the facility. They did a soil test, architectural design and also structural designing for a new pool of international standards. Just as the present pool was Sri Lanka's first, the new pool was to become Sri Lanka's first ever 25-metre long pool conforming to international standards of a short course pool. Currently in Sri Lanka, all short pool meets are conducted on 33.3-metre long pools. But as Dulapandan pointed out, Sri Lanka is far behind time since the standard of a short course pool had been brought down to 25 metres in the 1960's.

Dulapandan said there were twelve to fifteen short course swimming championships around the globe in a year including the short-course world championships but Sri Lanka could not take part in these meets as there are no 25-metre competition pools in Sri Lanka.

He also said all international class swimmers train on 25-metre pools to build up their endurance as anybody practicing in such a pool will be doing double the amount of turns that are required in a normal 50-metre pool.

After doing all the basic work, the committee started fund raising and understandably it was not much of a problem. According to Fernando, they did not need to ask money from old boys in Sri Lanka as the estimated Rs. 15 million were collected from those who were based overseas while a good part of it was also found by the then College warden Neville de Alwis. Parents-Teachers Association and the Old Boys Association collected 30-40 percent of the money.

Although the money was not to cover the total estimation, an old boy came forward to take up the contract, volunteering to contribute the rest from his pocket.

OKAY FROM THE BOARD
Then the old boys went to get the okay from the Board of Governors, which after two years, has still not been granted. Meanwhile the nature took its course and destruction of the pool continued. In addition to that, production costs also sky rocketed, and according to Fernando now the estimate would not read below four times the original Rs. 15 million collected. Part of the collected money by the old boys were deposited in the custody of the Board of Governors while the rest will also be transferred shortly.

As for the pool now, it was in the worst imaginable state when "The Island" visited it last week. Water looked dark green with a very poor visibility through it, suggesting it was far beyond the conducive level for a healthy swim.

A.K. Nanayakkara who handles the maintenance (all aspects) of the pool, said at least seven inches of water disappeared through leaks overnight. Proper pH testing equipment was not available while mixing chemicals and chlorine was manually done by sprinkling the powder onto the pool. A sample testing of pH did not show any figure because the level was below readable level.

The primitive pumping machinery known as the filtration plant, rusted up and looking quite ancient, was always running the risk of a breakdown. The rusty machine was partially submerged in water which had leaked from the pumps and filled the building which housed it. Diving boards were broken. Huge cracks were all over the pool. Tiles were missing and plastered. One side of the pool had sunken to the ground alarmingly, making the pool go out of shape.

The writing was on the (cracked)wall for Sri Lanka's oldest pool while the day looked near Thomian swimming also underwent the same fate.