Sri Lankan junior swimmers returned to the island last night after a successful campaign at the FINA Junior World Championships held in Singapore after each of the participants registered their personal bests.
Eight Sri Lankans qualified for the Junior Swimming Championships over the weekend and returned recording personal bests in at least one of the main events they participated as none of them had the privilege of moving beyond the heats. Swimmers Kyle Abeysinghe, Dlirukshi Perera and Hiruni Perera registered their personal bests in all of the events they swam.
Hiruni Perera, a product of Harischandra College in Negombo took most of the credit in the concluded swimming championships, as the 17 year old was able to set a new national record in the 50m-butterfly event clocking a time of 30.09. Kimiko Raheem who swam with a time of 30.44 set the previous record. It was a tough task for Raheem to participate in two back to back international events having recently arrived from Kazan in Russia after the Swimming World Championships.
Speaking to ThePapare.com on the achievements of the swimmers in Singapore, Mr. Akrhy Ameer, the FINA authorized committee member for Sri Lanka Aquatics had this to add;
“This was the first major international championships for majority of these swimmers and we couldn’t expect anything more than their personal best. This is our elite among the youth category and they will be the lead swimmers in future if they don’t lose sight of their goals”
Sri Lanka participated in the Junior Championships under the FINA flag as a Suspended Member Federation (SMF) due to ongoing suspension enforced by FINA on the Sri Lanka Aquatics Union owing to a non-timely revision of the country’s sports regulations as prescribed by the International Olympic Committee and the conduct of an unauthorized election by a faction of the member clubs.
The Lankan swimmers did not have the legacy of bagging any silverware but it was commendable to see the Sri Lankans going head to head with the heavyweights such as USA and Australia.
The team comprised four boys and four girls namely Kyle Abeysinghe, Imesh Chathuranga, Dineth Jayakody, Akalanka Pieris, Chamodi De Fonseka, Dilrukshi Perera. Hiruni Perera and Kimiko Raheem. The team was coordinated by Manoj Abeysinghe (Head Coach), Sineth Akila (Assistant Coach) and Marianne Jongsma on behalf of the FINA Scholarship Programme swimmers from the Thanyapura Training Centre in Thailand.
