Two women and four men to go down under
Kyle Abeysinghe
A 6-member swimming team of 2 Women and 4 Men will represent Sri Lanka at the 21st Commonwealth Games to be held in Gold Coast, Australia, from April 4-15.
The Women are Kimiko Rahim and Vinoli Kaluarachchi, and the Men are Cherantha De Silva, Matthew Abeysinghe, Kyle Abeysinghe and Akalanka Peiris.
Matthew Abeysinghe was 9th in the Overall Rankings in the 100m Men’s Freestyle and finished 18th Overall in the 200m Men’s Freestyle at the 2017 Winter Olympic Swim C’ships in Ohio, USA, and qualified for the respective events.
Cherantha De Silva did well at the Sri Lanka National Short Course Championships coming second , while winning the Singapore Nationals Short Course events, breaking its National record. This earned him a place at the 2018 Commonwealth Games. De Silva was trained at the Bolles School in Florida and Thanyapura Aquatic Training Centre in Thailand.
Kimiko Raheem
De Silva established 2 National records (200m and 50m Butterfly) in May 2016 and became the 1st Sri Lankan to break the 55secs-barrier in the 100m Butterfly event, setting a new National record of 54.99 secs, narrowly missing the Olympic ‘B’ qualification standard of 54.12 secs.
Kyle Abeysinghe, the up and coming swim sensation of Sri Lanka won Silver in the Men’s Freestyle at the 2017 Commonwealth Youth Games in Bahamas. He represented Sri Lanka at the Junior World Swimming C’ship held in Singapore in 2015. Kyle Abeysinghe won 4 Gold and a Silver at the 2016 South Asian Games in his individual events. Abeysinghe won the 100m LC Freestyle and 50m LC Freestyle, timing 52.17 secs and 23.87 secs respectively, at the Commonwealth Games qualifying trials held recently.
Matthew Abeysinghe
Akalanka booked his berth to the Gold Coast by winning the 50m LC Backstroke (26.98 secs), 50m LC Butterfly (25.37 secs) and 100m LC Backstroke (58.59 secs) at the trials conducted by the Sri Lanka Aquatic Sports Union.
Kimiko Raheem was a member of the Sri Lanka team for the 2016 Rio de Janeiro Olympics. She won multiple Gold medals at the 2016 South Asian Games in the Backstroke and Freestyle events. She was also a semifinalist in the 100m Backstroke event at the 2014 Commonwealth Games in Glasgow.
Vinoli Kaluarachchi of Sirimavo Bandaranaike BV played an integral role in her team’s first ever Senior Nationals victory. She was adjudged Best Swimmer at the National Sports Festival for winning 2 Gold and 2 Silver in her individual events.