Fate of four Lankan FINA swimmers this week
The four swimmers supposed to represent Sri Lanka in next month’s FINA World Swimming Championship await the organisers’ approval after the National Sports Committee (NSC) revoked and directed the endorsement from FINA.
Accordingly, the four names subject to FINA approval are Cherantha de Silva, Akalanka Peris, Ganga Seneviratne, Bakthi Karunasena – and a reserve third girl in Olympian Aniqah Gaffoor, said an official with direct knowledge of the matter.
When the Sunday Times also spoke to Nethru Nanayakkara, the President of Sri Lanka Aquatic Sports Union (SLASU), he said they had written to the mid-December’s meet organisers late on Thursday (11) and were waiting for their final word due during this week.
The four were filtered based on 2019 timings since there was no time to hold fresh selections because of the pandemic-delayed reopening of the pools, happening only mid of last month.
“We could not hold trials because we were tight-with-time. We’ve checked the FINA regulations, and they also permit timings from 2019. The selection committee has now shortlisted these four names,” Nanayakkara said.
After the approving process and procedure was submitted to the NSC and getting their green light, which had backfired. Sri Lanka also had to overcome a blow when they found country’s best swimmer in recent years – Matthew Abeysinghe – won’t be taking part due to sponsorship and finance-seeking barriers.
With the latter, the only prospect of a gold medal, at the 2023 South Asian Games, the union and the athlete are now in a quest to find sponsorship to clear him to participate.
“He was training under a scholarship and is dealing with a problem in finance. The High Performance Programme had given him US$ 1,500. There is an Olympic scholarship vying for worth US$ 1,000. He is still in need of another $ 2,500 because he needs US$ 5,000 a month to keep on training,” Nanayakkara explained of Abeysinghe’s situation.