Matthew Abeysinghe secured the first ever medal for Sri Lankan swimming at the Asian Youth Games on the eve of the close of the 2nd Asian Youth Games in Nanjing on Friday night.
Matthew progressively cleared his own national record from the heats through the semifinal to clinch the Bronze medal in the final with a new national record of 51.52 secs in the 100m Freestyle.
Having narrowly missed the finals in his earlier two events he kept his determination intact to create history as the first Sri Lankan swimmer to clinch a medal within the two editions of the Asian Youth Games which was first held in Singapore in 2010 targeting youth between the ages of 13 to 18 years depending on the various sports.
“Matthew was able to reap the rewards of the immense sacrifice and dedication to the sport by winning a Bronze medal for Sri Lanka. Since the next edition of the Games is going to be in Hambantota in 2017, Matthew hopes that he has inspired the younger generation of Sri Lankan swimmers to better his performance on home soil in another four years”, said his coach and father Manoj Abeysinghe in a telephone statement to the Sri Lanka Aquatic Sports Union (SLASU) of his performance.
The second swimmer to represent Sri Lanka at the Games, Machiko Raheem was not lucky enough to progress to the finals but secured personal bests with two national records while progressing to the semifinals of the Girls 100m Freestyle and a new national record in the heats of the 200m Freestyle.
“We are indeed thrilled with the performances, but all credit goes to the athletes and their coach. We are grateful to the National Olympic Committee for believing in the swimmers and accommodating their requests to transit and train in Singapore on their long journey to Nanjing. We are also thankful to the Minister Mahindananda Aluthgamage for committing to funding the two slots for the swimmers with no prior performance measure”, said Akhry Ameer, General Secretary of SLASU.
The two swimmers will return to the island ahead of the rest of the contingent to proceed to Dubai to participate at the 04th FINA World Junior Swimming Championships with the hope of qualifying for the Youth Olympic Games to be held in Nanjing next year.
