Cherantha De Silva and Akalanka Peiris competed in the Men’s 50m Butterfly event on the opening day of the 2018 Gold Coast Commonwealth Games, earlier today (5th April).
The Lankan duo De Silva and Peiris were among 56 swimmers in the heats. De Silva coming in with a season-best of 24.08s and Peiris with a 24.86s looked strong contenders on text with only the top 16 swimmers with the fastest timings eligible to qualify for the semifinal.
With South Africa and Trinidad and Tobago dominating the top spots in the qualifying charts, De Silva clocked in at 25.13s finishing 5 places behind the 16th place qualifier. Peiris trailed close behind, finishing 27th with a timing of 25.32s.
Peiris tried his hand in the Men’s 100m Backstroke coming in with a season-best of 56.99. Finishing 6th in his heat, Peiris managed to secure the last reserve spot, finishing 18th in the overall standings. Therefore, he is qualified as a reserve for the next phase (semifinal) of the Men’s 100 Backstroke scheduled for later today.
Vinoli Kaluarachchi and Dilrukshi Perera will take the pool for the Women’s 50m Freestyle tomorrow (6th April). Kaluarachchi will also compete in the Women’s 100m Backstroke tomorrow while the boys team up for the 4×100 Freestyle event later in the day.
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