Swimming: Matthew Abeysinghe becomes first local swimmer to achieve Olympic standard

Sri Lanka swimming sensation Matthew Abeysinghe, already a wild card entry for the upcoming Rio Olympics 2016, created history by becoming the first ever local swimmer to achieve Olympic standard. 

With Abeysinghe's achievement of 50.53 seconds in the Men's 100m Freestyle event at the Hong Kong Swimming Circuit Championship on Saturday (2), he will proudly compete at the Rio Olympics as a direct entry, not as a wild card, according to Maxwell de Silva, the Secretary of National Olympic Committee of Sri Lanka (NOC).

"Matthew (Abeysinghe) has created history in Sri Lanka swimming by becoming the first ever swimmer to qualify for the Olympics. So far in the history, swimmers who have competed at Olympics through wild card entries and Matthew's achievement is significant I must say," de Silva stated. 

Abeywinghe, 20, competed in the final qualification event yesterday in Hong Kong to finish 0.17 seconds inside the minimum qualifying standard timing, which was 50.70 seconds. 

Earlier in February Abeysinghe broke the record for the most gold medals in the South Asian Games previously set by Julian Bolling in 1991. 

Abeywinghe bagged a total of 10 medals -- seven golds, two silvers and a bronze in 11 events.  

The NOC confirmed that seven athletes have already been named for the Rio Olympics, including Abeysinghe, who was a wild card entry until yesterday. 

Other athletes in the Sri Lankan contingent are Anuradha Cooray (Men's Marathon), Niluka Rajasekara (Women's Marathon), Sumeda Ranasinghe (Men's Javelin Throw), Niluka Karunaratne (Men's Badminton Singles), Chamara Dharmawardhana (Men's Judo 73kg), Sudesh Peiris (Men's Weightlifting), Mangala Samarakoon (Shooting 10m Air Rifle and 50m Rifle Prone), Kimiko Raheem (Women's Swimming). 

From the lot track and field athletes Cooray, Rajasekara and Ranasinghe enter the Rio Olympics by reaching qualifying standards while the rest were wild card entries.    

Abeysinghe will continue his stint in Hong Kong at the competition with a few more qualifying events to be completed before returning to Sri Lanka on Tuesday.