Teenage National Swimmer Mathew Abeysinghe, who has just returned from the Commonwealth Games in New Delhi, expressed his sincere regret over not being able to participate in the competition’s 400 meter Freestyle event, due to what he says was an honest mistake.
Swimmer Mathew Abeysinghe, fresh from his record breaking feat at the Commonwealth Games.
Pic by Saman Kariyawasam. |
The fourteen-year-old, who was representing Sri Lanka at an international event for the first time, said that he had accidentally left his identification card in the changing room before he went up to take his place at the starting block.
“I asked the officials whether I could run across the deck to get it but they said that I couldn’t so I had to run around, through the corridors, and by the time I had got there the race had already started,” Mathew explained.
Mathew’s father and coach, Manoj Abeysinghe said the error was a result of his son’s understandable lack of composure being that it was his first outing on the world stage. “He was not able to be firm enough with the officials and convey to them how important it was for him to get his card,” he opines.
Manoj says that the 400 meters is Mathew’s strongest event and his participation in it might have produced results that would have eclipsed his two other performances in the 100 and 200 meters freestyle races. Across the 200 meters, the immensely talented teenager clocked in at 1 minute 56 seconds to shatter Julian Bolling’s 25-year-old national record of 2 minutes 29 seconds. |
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