Swimmers struggle to stay afloat
Akalanka Peiris (left) with his coach Shehaan Dias at SAG 2019
Sri Lankan swimmers representing the country in international events have urged the sports minister and the authorities to bring the country’s swimming’s facilities on par with global standards.
Both Akalanka Peiris and Ganga Seneviratne, the two backstroke swimmers, having participated at this week’s year-end meet of FINA World Championships, Abu Dhabi, had found it difficult to acclimatise and took a few days to become comfortable latest support system in place for swimmers.
Ledge, for backstrokes, is a support system for swimmers, designed to generate the push for them. This particular support material is not to be found in the country.
Peiris, leading the appeal along with his FINA swimmers also sharing the urge, said this necessity has been unattended for years now.
“We do. I have that necessity a lot. Not only me, but also other swimmers who are willing to participate in the meets,” Peiris admitted, speaking to the Sunday Times this week, after his return from the meet, the first in the last two-years.
Swimmers are now faced with a demand to at least have one block- which would be a great boon and a boost. This block is a push, where swimmers jump from their starting point. It is akin to that of where runners start their race. This, supposed to be in an inclined position, is only a flat surface at the Sugathadasa pool.
This particular lack of facility comes haunting them, and did so once, when a Lankan contingency had participated in meets in Singapore and Malaysia, where their state-of-the-art pools are built consisting of these. However, the impression the Lankan swimmers have got is, they swim well in local conditions but not repeat the same in international circumstances, though the root cause is failure of the facility.
Peiris remembered, when he was a victim himself in 2015 at Junior World Championships, finding himself clueless on how to tackle this unforeseen problem then.
Akalanka Peiris is one of the top swimmers in Sri Lanka
He, along with his fellow swimmers, have been denied and deprived of international standard swimming pools and High-Performance Centre in the country, so much so, the old Peterite uses his school pool as one of his training sessions alongside with a bunch of school swimmers. The existing training conditions are grossly inadequate for national swimmers.
“There is a very big requirement,” he revealed the need of the hour.
“We do not maintain the required temperature in pools in Sri Lanka nor they have the standard blocks used in other countries”.
The Sunday Times also found powerhouses namely – US and Australia – to name a few, train together, unlike how it’s done here. This is because two leading coaches have got their grudges and egoistic problems running between them, denying their students to work and warm up together.
The authorities are well aware of all the needs, including the sports minister himself. But the remedy is long overdue.
Speaking of his performance, he says he pulled off the timings, with only two months of training, completely inadequate, and after a tournament drought of two-years. Former Peterite swimmer competed in the 50M and 100M backstroke’s events at the recent World Championship.
The path ahead of this world meet had been marred with approval problems causing delays, delayed reopening of pools and the Lankan team of four tight-with-time. Given that, Peiris’s coach, Shehaan Dias, had questioned whether his mentee was up to the challenge and 21-year-old Peiris remained determined to take wings.
It had taken seven-days for Peiris to get back on track and it was then his coach had started to believe him. A better result was yet to come, when Dias was taken aback by the results of his student. Courtesy to finally breaking the drought, Peiris sounds even more optimistic, and believes in the next two to three months, he will be the Peiris in his prime form.
“Straight after the lockdown, I had trained only for seven-weeks. I had only eight gym sessions, which is not enough at all,” he said.
The South Asian Games medalist is now hoping for an U.S. scholarship in the coming year with his coach also giving the indication to hunt for one. However, the deal costing US$ 44,000 or Rs.9 million per year is causing financial constraints.
He revealed negotiations are on with the University of Tampa, Florida, but the cost is costing a buck, and for this too, he is dependent on the government for financial aid. He might have to pocket out Rs 36 million and with his personal situation, he is in need of a financial grant from the state.
| Full results | |
| Akalanka Peris 50m Backstroke: 25.31secs (37th of 49)100m Backstroke: 54.83secs (41st of 56)Cherantha de Silva 100m Butterfly: 56.33secs (69th of 83) 100m Freestyle: 52.29secs (72nd of 100) Ganga Seneviratne 50m Backstroke: 30.92secs (36th of 55 – PB) 100m Backstroke: 1.06.06secs (37th of 48) Bakthi Karunasena 50m Freestyle: 27.61secs (63rd of 89) 100 Freestyle: 1.01.32secs (65th of 85) |