Mixed fortunes for Lankan swimmers at World meet

MONTREAL, Wednesday - Prabha Madhvi Dharmadasa came up with the best effort by a Sri Lankan swimmer so far at the World Swimming championships here when she finished second in the women's 50m Backtroke heat.

Prabha taking part in heat 2 of her event clocked 33.73 seconds to finish second to the winner Ellen Hight of Zambia. However the best timing for the event came from China's Gao Chang who clocked 28.70 seconds.

This was a vast improvement by Prabha who ended up in sixth place on day two of the championships when she clocked one minute 14.15 secs in the women's 100m Backstroke heat on Monday. Milinda Wickramasinghe did not have such luck. Of the three events he took part in his best effort was in the men's free style heats today where he took fifth place with a time of 56.79 secs. The winner of this event Alexander Ray of Naminia was timed at 54.95 seconds.

On Sunday, Wickramasinghe finished seventh with a time of 27.87 secs in the men's 50m Butterfly heats and the following day he did not start in the men's 200m men's Freestyle heat.

In the women's 100m Breaststroke heat worked off on Monday, Mayumi Raheem of Sri Lanka finished sixth with a time of one minute 21.06 seconds.