Killer Whale Aquatics felicitated their South Asian Games medal winners at a special ceremony that was held at the CR & FC grounds last evening, with the presence of the Hon. Minister of Sports Dayasiri Jayasekara.
The recently concluded South Asian games was a glorious one for the Sri Lankans in the aquatics category, especially for the Killer Whale Aquatics swimmers who bagged 80% of the medals won. This was an occasion where the respective swimming club peaked under the guidance of Manoj Abeysinghe, making the country proud as a whole.
The best of the swimmers from KWA was Matthew Abeysinghe, who was responsible for 7 gold medals and went on to set several games records while renewing current Lankan bests. 7 swimmers representing the club went on to win a total of 24 medals in India. The entire Sri Lankan contingent won 12 gold, 16 silver and 11 bronze medals in the sport of swimming while the club alone were responsible for 7 gold, 8 silver and 4 bronze medals.
This was an achievement that was a result of hard work. Speaking at the felicitation ceremony, Manoj Abeysinghe; coach and one of the pillars behind the success of KWA mentioned that when he started the club in 2010, his primary intentions were to take Sri Lanka to a glorified state in the sport of swimming. He also mentioned that during the past five years, the KWA swimmers have been highflyers in an array of international swimming meets around the world and the results at the SAG’s are a result of an all round effort.
The swimmers who were felicitated by the Hon. Dayasiri Jayasekara, who took time off his busy schedule to grace the occasion, mentioned that he has never been any prouder and wished the very best to the swimmers. He mentioned that the fight is not over yet and he would be right behind every one of them as they look at targeting the Olympics as well as the other international games in the coming months.
Sri Lanka’s star swimmer, eighteen year old Matthew Abeysinghe, who also broke the 25 year old record set by Julian Bollling in 1992 for the most number of gold medals won in an South Asian Games, went on to mention that he couldn’t have done it without the guidance given by his coaches, parents, family and friends. He went on to mention that he would looking at getting Sri Lanka through to the biggest stage which is the 2016 Rio Olympics. Currently Matthew has a lower grade qualification but he believes that he could better that in the coming months.
One other notable mention in the medal winners was thirteen year old Sandu Savindi who won silver in the 4X100 Freestyle relay making her the youngest ever Sri Lankan SAG medal winner.
