SLASU to pool a strong team at Commonwealth Games in Australia

The Women are Kimiko Raheem and Vinoli Kaluarachchi, and the Men are Cherantha De Silva, Matthew Abeysinghe, Kyle Abeysinghe and Akalanka Peiris.

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.

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 broke the national record winning the Singapore Nationals Short Course events to earn a place in the 2018 Commonwealth Games. De Silva was trained at the Bolles School in Florida and Thanyapura Aquatic Training Centre in Thailand.

Young swimming sensation Kyle Abeysinghe 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.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.

Akalanka Peiris 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.