Why only 3 swimmers for World Championships?
File photo: Kyle Abeysinghe swims at the Sri Lanka Nationals at Sugathadasa Stadium last month. Pic Ranjith Perera
Sri Lanka Aquatic Sports Union (SLASU) selected only 3 Swimmers for the short course FINA World Championships which ended today (Sunday) in Windsor ON, Canada. However, as Olympic Swimmer Matthew Abeysinghe was injured, only 2 Swimmers represented the country.
It is a big difference when compared with the previous World Championships in 2014, when Sri Lanka fielded 6 Swimmers in the short course world meet held in Doha, Qatar, where the world’s 968 top Swimmers took part.
Normally, FINA, the world governing body for Swimming, funds 3 Swimmers and SLASU, at that time, arranged for another 3 Swimmers for the 2014 World Championship.
The FINA World Swimming Championship (25 metres) is a bi-annual event that has grown significantly over the past 23 years, with every country increasing its participants to get maximum exposure.
Since, Sri Lanka has a very good trend to build up strong swimmers, at a time that the country has already produced a direct entry for the last summer Olympics Games in Rio in Matthew Abeysinghe, who was first Sri Lankan swimmer to represent an Olympic Games on a direct entry.
Even for the Asian Swimming Championship held in Japan last month, SLASU did not field a Swimmer saying they are focusing on the World Championships.
But sadly, SLASU was unable to send at least a replacement for the injured Matthew Abeysinghe.
The 13th edition of the championships was staged in Windsor, attracting almost 1,000 of the world’s best swimmers from more than 172 countries, for 6 days of intense competition.
Killer Whale Aquatics’ Kyle Abeysinghe gained much from a world class exposure. He proved it by breaking 2 National records in the men’s 200m Individual Medley on Wednesday and the 200m Freestyle on Thursday.
In the 200m Individual Medley, Kyle erased Sri Lanka Navy’s Heshan Unamboowe’s record of 2:05.46, in 2012, by clocking 2:04.17.
Kyle also broke Olympic Swimmer and elder brother Matthew Abeysinghe’s 200m Freestyle national record, clocking an amazing 1:50.15 to erase the 1:51.36 set two years ago.
Meanwhile, Sri Lanka’s Backstroke specialist, Kimiko Raheem, who took part in 6 events in all 3 Backstroke and Freestyle events, renewed her 200m Backstroke national record.