Sri Lankan men's swimmers win three silver medals

Leslie Fernando reporting from Pakistan

SWIMMING: Sri Lanka men's swimmers continued to fare well winning three silver and two bronze medals by Heshan Unamboowe, Chanaka Malimbada 4 x 200 metres free style relay 'quartet', Tuan Nabeel Dole and 4 x 100 metres free style relay in the evening session of the men's swimming event of the 1st South Asia Swimming and Waterpolo Championships held at the Jinnah Sports Complex Swimming Pool here on Thursday evening.

Heshan, gold medal winner in the 200 metres free style open bagged a silver in the first event of the evening session in the 200 metres backstroke clocking 2:12.87 seconds. The second silver was obtained by Chanaka Malimbada in the 200 metres breast stroke open time 2:38.67 secs, Diluka Thibbotumunwe came in fourth 2:41.75 secs. The third silver was in the 4 x 200 metres free style relay men's open.

The relay quartet Dilina Dissanayake (first lap), Dasun Perera (second), Punhasa Senanayaka (third) and Heshan Unamboowe (final lap) put up a creditable display to outswim the Pakistanis with a time of 8:27.84.

Until the 3rd lap India and Pakistan were in front, first and second positions but in the final lap Sri Lanka captain Heshan swam in terrific speed to beat Muhammad Hammer in fine style to come in second. It was a memorable race for the Sri Lankan team.

Tuan Nabeel Dole, the first ever swimmer to compete in a foreign meet from St. Benedict's College won a bronze in the 50 metres breast stroke boy's under-14 - 34.97 secs. Issac Prins, Sashika Perera, Pathum Edirisinghe and S.K. Wickremaratne combined well to win the other bronze in the 4 x 100 m free style boy's under-14 - 4:13.13 secs. In the morning session of the men's and boy's swimming events, on Friday Pathum Edirisinghe, Praneeth Udumalagala won a silver each and Yahan Samarajee won a bronze.

Pathum Edirisinghe in the 400 metres individual medley took the silver 2:35.34 secs and Praneeth Udumalagala accounted for the second silver in the 100 metres breast stroke under-14 - 1:17.95 secs. Tuan Nabeel Dole came in fifth with a time of 1:23.53 secs.

Lashan Obasha Senaratne was placed fourth in the 200 m individual medley - 2:38.96 secs while Ashane Harith Fernando fifth in the 400 m, individual medley - 5:21.81 secs. Sri Lanka men's and boys' medal tally rose to 11, one gold, five silver and five bronze at the end of the second day's morning swimming events of men and boys.

Today is the final day of the meet and 11 events will be worked off followed by farewell dinner to teams from India, Sri Lanka, Nepal, Maldives and Bhutan.

ISLAMABAD, Friday