Sri Lankan athletes who fail to qualify for the Paris Olympic Games will miss out on their participation as the International Olympic Committee (IOC) will not provide wild card entries to the country this time.
This was revealed to the Sunday Observer by Secretary of the National Olympic Committee (NOC) Maxwell de Silva.
“Only the swimmers will get the opportunity to participate as the world body for swimming wants to see swimmers from all countries get the opportunity to take the plunge,” said Maxwell.
Meanwhile, the Sri Lanka Aquatic Sports Union (SLASU) has picked two leading swimmers to represent the country at the Paris Olympic Games this time.
The two leading swimmers are Kyle Abeysinghe and Ganga Seneviratne from Killer Whale Aquatics where Manoj Abeysinghe is the coach.
Kyle the younger brother of Matthew Abeysinghe, will swim the 100m free style event while Ganga Seneviratne will swim the 100m back stroke event in Paris.
Matthew Abeysinghe the top swimmer in Sri Lanka will not be allowed to participate in Paris as he has already participated in two Olympic Games in Rio and Tokyo. The rule states that a swimmer cannot compete in more than two Olympics.
Kyle and Ganga were selected on merit for their excellent performances at the World Aquatic Championships held in Doha, Qatar 2024.
Kyle swam the 100m freestyle in an amazing 50.99 seconds to earn 776 FINA points and is the second best after his brother Matthew.
Ganga swam the 100m backstroke in a time of 1:04.97 to earn 686 FINA points at the Doha World Championships.
Only Sri Lankan sprinter Yupun Abeykoon has a very good chance to qualify for the Paris Olympic Games. He made a victorious return to the field after a long break due to injury.
He participated in the Florence Sprint Festival held in Italy and finished first in the 150m in a time of 15.19 seconds. This was his second best effort having held the Asian record of 15.16 seconds for the 150m event.
Abeykoon holds the Sri Lanka record in the 100m, 200m and 150m sprint events. The injury he sustained made him miss the World Athletic Championship and the Asian Games last year.
Being the only South Asian athlete to clock under 10 seconds in the 100 metres, Yupun has a good chance to qualify for the Olympics in Paris this year.
Meanwhile Sports Minister Harin Fernando has launched a new program that will help the best Sri Lankan athletes to enhance their level of performance and succeed to qualify for the Paris Olympics. This program will support the athletes who will be trained further to reach the qualifying standards.
There is only just three months left for the Paris Games and none of the Sri Lankan athletes have qualified so far.
Already 58 athletes from a dozen sports are included into this super athletics pool. They are in the program named ‘Road to Olympics’ and the funds needed for their training and nutrition will be provided by the Sports Ministry.
However, there is not much time left and it will only be a miracle if any athlete can enhance their level of performance in such a short time.
