The champion swimmer Akalanka Peiris returning from his recent form from entering the World’s top 50 list in the Men’s 50m and 100m Backstroke, managing to continue his supremacy by winning three first places at the recently concluded first swimming selection trials at the Sugathadasa Indoor Stadium.
In the 50m Backstroke, he clocked 26.38sec for a comfortable win while in the 100m Backstroke former Peterite swimmer Peiris clocked a 58.76sec, taking another gold. He also won the 100m Freestyle in 51.69seconds.
The last Commonwealth Games held 2018 in Gold Coast Akalanka Peiris, along with his teammates Cherantha De Silva, Matthew and Kyle Abeysinghe brothers reached the finals of the Men’s 4x100m relay which made headlines as the first-ever Sri Lankan team to have achieved this feat.The 21 year old Akalanka Pieris expected improve his performance to get more success this year.
Meanwhile National swimmers, Ramudi Samarakoon and Sandev Senaratne also fared well, with Sandev winning three 1st places in the 50m Butterfly (25.40sec), 100m Butterfly (56.42sec) and 200m Butterfly event (2:13.18min).
Ramudi also managed two top finishes in the 50m Breaststroke (35.61sec) and the 100m Breaststroke (1:19.66min) and a third-place finish in the 200m Freestyle event.
Ganga Seneviratne of Killer Whale Aquatics won the Women’s Open 50m Backstroke in 32.05sec and the 100m Back in 1:07.71min. She also excelled in the 100m Freestyle, winning the event in 1:01.49min. Finishing out a perfect weekend she won the Women 200m Backstroke with a time of 2:28.47min.
2022 is a busy schedule for the swimmers. The two major competitions, the Asian and Commonwealth Games set to be held from the period of July to September while Malaysian Open Swimming Championships (April) which will also be a qualifying event for the World Championships (May) will start off the international list of events. The FINA World Junior Swimming Championship, Asian Youth Games and the FINA World Championships (25m) are also on the cards for 2022.
By Dammika Ratnaweera
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