Malcolm Anthony Williams alias Tony Williams who represented Sri Lanka at the Rome Olympics in 1960 in swimming events was born on October 28, 1938 in London.
He took to swimming at the age of 10 years while staying with his mother in Australia. Returning to Sri Lanka in 1949, he commenced training under coach Guy Theldaman, and won the 100 yards breaststroke event at the Public Schools Swimming Meet in 1952.
At the Junior Swimming Meet between Bombay and Sri Lanka in 1954, he showed international level potential while swimming the 200m breaststroke in 3 minutes and 02 seconds.
He was the Captain of the St. Joseph's College Swimming Team in 1955. In 1956, the Josephian Team under his leadership won the Public Schools Swimming Championships.
As a schoolboy he participated in the National Swimming Championships and won the 200 yards breaststroke in 3 minutes 03.02 seconds shattering the existing record of 3 minutes 03.08 seconds.
The same year he was able to reduce the timing to 3 minutes 01 seconds. In 1956 at the Indo-Ceylon Swimming Meet held in Bombay, Williams won the same event shattering the All-India record.
The St. Joseph's College Swimming Team at the Public Schools Swimming Meet in 1957 under the captaincy of Tony won the V. R. Schokman Shield and the William Jones Shield.
The same year at the Junior Swimming Meet the 100 yards butterfly stroke event was won by Tony while shattering the existing five-year old National record by eight seconds.
In 1958, as Captain of the Kinross Club Swimming Team, he shattered five Ceylon records and five National records at the National Swimming Championships.
Among those records were the 220 yards breaststroke, 100 yards butterfly stroke and the 4X100 medley relay events.
Due to his huge success, he was selected to represent the country at the 1958 Asian Games held in Tokyo, Japan. At the Asian Games, he was among the first six in the 100 metres and the 200 metres breaststroke events.
He participated at the Commonwealth Games held in Cardiff, Wales the same year but due to lack of experience in top level international competitions he could not make an impact.
Tony showed his excellence at the National Swimming Meets in 1959. At these meets he shattered 10 existing records. The unmatched record he established in the 220 yards butterfly stroke completing it in 2 minutes 52.2 seconds was among those 10 records.
That year he had established a total of 13 records. These included his records in the 100m, 110m, 200m, 220m freestyle, 200m breaststroke, 100m, 200m butterfly stroke, 4X100m, 4X110m and 4X100m medley.
At the Rome Olympics, Tony swam the 200 metres breaststroke in 2 minutes 59.8 seconds to be placed 6th in the heats and could not qualify for the finals.
Tony Williams who revolutionised the local swimming scene during the period from 1952 to 1960 could be described as a “flower that bloomed and faded in the Jungle.” (C.D)
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