Minister stops swimming trials

The Minister of Sports and Recreation Gamini Lokuge yesterday decided to cancel the Olympic swimming trials which were scheduled to take place on Saturday at the Sugathadasa Stadium swimming pool.

This was after FINA which is the World Governing Body for swimming had confirmed to the Sri Lanka Aquatic Sports Union that Mayumi Raheem and Daniel Lee had been picked to participate in the Beijing Olympic Games as wildcard entries.

The FINA had selected these two swimmers having considered their previous performances and under the FINA rule BL 8.3.6.2: relating to National Federations, National Olympic Committee's for swimmers who have not met the Olympic qualifying standards set by FINA.

Earlier the Sports Minister Gamini Lokuge had named a three member committee to supervise the swimming trials between Mayumi Raheem and Miniruwani Samarakoon.