Matthew Abeysinghe’s medal hopes were dashed as he had to settle for a 6th place finish in the final of the Men’s 100m Freestyle event at the 2018 Asian Games.
Team Sri Lanka swam in their final individual events at the Asian Games, a short while ago at the GBK Aquatic arena. Superstar Matthew Abeysinghe was the best performer by far, making it into the 100m Freestyle final, Sri Lanka’s 1st of the games.
Abeysinghe swimming in lane 6, was shaky from the start, falling behind the pack off the board. Although his difference between splits is an impressive 0.57 seconds, Abeysinghe couldn’t beat his current National Record (49.11), which he established at the Commonwealth Games 2018.
With a reaction time of 0.65secs, Matthew mustered up a finish of 49.28 seconds at the line with a 50m split at 23.41 seconds to finish 6th. Shinri Shioura of Japan, fastest qualifier and Silver medalist from 2014, took home Gold as expected clocking 48.71seconds.
The event was held across 6 heats, Akalanka Peiris placed in heat 3 and Cherantha De Silva in the 4th. Peiris, first to jump into the waters started with an impressive 0.14secs difference. Gaining speed from inception, Peiris was a mere 0.14 seconds behind Navaphat Wongcharoen of Thailand at the finish line.
Silva finished 8th in his heat with a timing of 25.36 seconds with a difference of 1.23 seconds, not the best from Cherantha De Silva to end his time at the Games.
De Silva ended his heat with a timing of 25.36seconds with an 8th place finish
