The 4-man swim team representation in the Gold Coast, powered their way through to the final of the Men’s 4x100m Freestyle event earlier this morning.
The four powerhouses, Matthew Abeysinghe, Akalanka Peiris, Cherantha De Silva and Kyle Abeysinghe finished 5th in their heat of 6 teams, and as the top 8 teams advance to the next phase by default, have secured their place in the final of the event scheduled for this evening. New Zealand, England and Canada finished top three respectively with Northern Ireland finishing 4th trailing by 27 milliseconds.
Sri Lanka’s Matthew Abeysinghe started the relay for his team with an impressive split time of 49.51 – fastest timing in the team – and handed it over to young Akalanka Peiris who finished at 51.75. Thai trainee Cherantha De Silva finished with a split time of 51.00 seconds and Kyle Abeysinghe took on the reigns to drive Sri Lanka home. He finished with the second-best timing within the team at 50.58 to end the race as the team registered a timing of 3.22.84.
Matthew Abeysinghe started the relay with an impressive finish to his lap, recording a faster time than 2 nations that finished ahead of Sri Lanka. Heat champs New Zealand’s starter Daniel Hunter was surprisingly 7 milliseconds behind Abeysinghe and so was Northern Ireland starter Curtis Coulter who finished 1.07 seconds behind Abeysinghe.
The Sri Lankan ladies took the pool for the first time at the 2018 games this morning. Vinoli Kaluarachchi and Dilrukshi Perera swam the 50m Freestyle event, both finishing 3rd in their respective heats. Vinoli finished with a timing of 28.76 while Dilrukshi finished with an impressive 27.75. However, these timings weren’t sufficient for the Semifinal cut off and will end the girls’ journey at the Commonwealth Games in the Women’s 50m Freestyle event.
The finals of the Men’s 4×100 Freestyle event is scheduled to take place this evening at 5:37pm Local time. Stay logged to ThePapare.com for instant updates on the Games!
