Cherantha de Silva

Cherantha De Silva (born 12 July 1996) is a Sri Lankan medal-winning swimmer, who has represented his country at 5 FINA World Championship's, 3 FINA World Cup's, 2 Commonwealth Games, 1 Asian Games as well as 1 South Asian Games, winning 7 medals. De Silva holds 6 national records (50m,100m and 200m and butterfly SCM & LCM).[2][3] As well he was qualified with 4 World championship B standards(B cuts) for the 2018, 14th FINA World Swimming Championships (25 m) held in Hangzhou, China. He narrowly missed the A standard (A cut) in the 50m Butterfly (SCM) clocking 23.48. While the A standard could have made history for Sri Lanka as the first Sri Lankan to achieve the A standard he missed it by 0.2 seconds.[4]

Cherantha de Silva
Personal information
Full nameK. T. Cherantha Gihash de Silva
Nickname(s)"Machine", "Cheriff"
National team Sri Lanka
Born (1996-07-12) 12 July 1996
Colombo, Sri Lanka
Height1.77 m (5 ft 9 1⁄2 in)
Weight73 kg (161 lb)
Sport
SportSwimming
StrokesFreestyle and Butterfly
ClubThanyapura [1]
CoachMiguel Lopez
Medal record
Men's swimming
Representing  Sri Lanka
2016 South Asian Games
2016 Guwahati4 × 100m Freestyle
2016 Guwahati100m freestyle
2016 Guwahati200m Butterfly
2016 Guwahati4 x 100m Medley
2016 Guwahati4 x 200m Free
2016 Guwahati100m Butterfly
2016 Guwahati50m Butterfly

De Silva was bestowed the "Best Sportsman of the Year" award at the school level,[5] provincial and national level.

Filmography

De Silva had the honour to be a part of the so-called world's first swimmer's movie. Named "Lane zero-The Lane of Dreams" showcases his and his team member's preparation towards the 2016 Rio Olympics. The director of this award-winning documentary named Manuel Tera describes the documentary like this "A feature-length documentary about the struggle of a group of swimmers from developing nations trying to qualify for the Olympic Games for the first time. A story about pursuing your dreams and overcoming adversity."[6] The Documentary has been nominated at the sports film festival in Italy[7] and it was able to secure an award for "The Best Sound". At present, the documentary has been sold to North and South America as well as a few countries in Europe.

Storyline A group of swimmers from developing nations train hard at a state of the art sports centre in Thailand. Working for the first time with proper facilities and under the guidance of a world-class coach, they are making amazing progress and improving on their personal best each time. They have one year left in order to qualify for the Olympics. For most of them, it would be the first time somebody from their country gets through on their own merit. In a country full of inaccessible swimming pools, Shajan and Sajina are two Maldivian sisters who train in the sea. Nepalese Sofia can only swim during the summertime because there are no heated pools in the Himalayas. Eroi is a Rwandese boy who trains in a lake watching Internet videos. These are just some of the characters of Lane 0, a story about those unknown athletes who race in the side lanes and always finish last. Now they are immersed in an experience that will change their lives forever.[8]

Cast Credited cast, sorted by IMDb STARmeter: Aisath Sajina ... Herself Eroi Maniraguha ... Himself Miguel López Alvarado ...Himself Ayman Kelzieh ... Himself Cheran De Silva ... Himself Sajan Prakash ... Himself Sofia Gadegaard ... Herself Kimiko Raheem ... Herself Aminath Shajan ... Herself David Escolar ... Himself

Career

FINA World Championships

2013 4th FINA World Junior Swimming Championships-Dubai

De Silva participated in 2 events 50m Freestyle clocking 24.32 and 100 Butterfly clocking 57.79.[9]

2014 FINA World Swimming Championships (25 m)-Doha

De Silva subsequently competed in the 2014 FINA World Swimming Championships held in Doha, Qatar, where he swam in the heats of the Open 50m butterfly, Open 100m butterfly, Open 50m freestyle and Open 100m freestyle.[10]

2015 16th FINA World Championships-Kazan

De Silva participated in the 2 men 2 women mixed relay team.[11]

2017 17th FINA World Championships-Budapest

Been able to compete in the 50m Butterfly as well as the 100m Butterfly event he was able to secure a world ranking of 49 and 55 with a time of 25.15 and 55.09 respectively.

2018 14th FINA World Swimming Championships (25 m)- Hangzhou

"Of the two men and two women swim team, Cherantha De Silva, Thimali Bandara and Savindi Jayaweera took the pool on the opening two days of the championship but had to hit the hay when they failed to advance to the semifinals amidst fierce competition."[12][13]

2014 Commonwealth Games- Glassgow

De Silva participated at 2014 Commonwealth Games in Glasgow, competing in the 50m and 100m freestyle and the 50m and 100m butterfly but failed to progress past the heats.[14]

2016 South Asian Games - Guwahati

In 2016 De Silva participated at the South Asian Games in Guwahati, India where he won one Gold, four Silver and two Bronze medals.[15]

2017 7th National Short Course Swimming Championship- Singapore

In December 2017, De Silva was able to set history for Sri Lanka by breaking a foreign national record. De Silva was able to shatter Singapore Olympian Quah Wen Zeng's 50-m butterfly record, thus renewing it to 23.48 seconds.[16] (He broke the Singapore national record and Sri Lankan national record, as well as set a new meet record in this race.) The speciality of De Silva's performance was that he was able to break 11 records across 10 events(heats and finals) in just two days. (record summary: Combination of heats, finals and a meet record.)[17]

2018 Commonwealth Games- GoldCoast

In February 2018, de Silva was named to Sri Lanka's 2018 Commonwealth Games team.[18][19] This was his 2nd representation of the Commonwealth Games edition. Cherantha was part of 4 × 100 m freestyle relay team that made history for Sri Lanka by advancing in to the finals. "The 4-man swim team representation in the Gold Coast, powered their way through to the final of the Men’s 4x100m Freestyle event earlier this morning."[20][21] However, the team had met with an unexpected incident of disqualification which resulted in a great upset by the 4-man team.[22]

2018 Asian Games

Following the success of the 2018 Commonwealth Games, De Silva was selected for the 2018 Asian Games which was held in August.[23][24]

Scholarships

Sri Lanka government scholarship

In 2014 the former Sports Minister Mahindananda Aluthgamage sponsored de Silva to train at the Bolles School, Jacksonville, Florida.

FINA/Thanyapura scholarship

De Silva was selected in 2015[25] by the Sri Lanka Aquatic Sports Union (SLASU) to receive the country's first FINA affiliated international training scholarship to train at the Thanyapura Aquatic Training Centre in Phuket, Thailand.[26] His scholarship has been renewed for the next 4 years consecutively; in order 2015,2016,2017 and 2018.[27] He was bestowed with the scholarships selected as the most deserving swimmer selected by the Sri Lanka Aquatic Sports Union(SLASU).[28]

Achievements

Sri Lanka National Records
Event Time NameClubDateMeetLocation Ref
50m Freestyle 22.55(SCM) NAT, WC BCherantha De Silva  Sri Lanka 2 December 20177th Singapore National Short Course Swimming Championship 2017 Singapore, Singapore [29]
100m Freestyle 49.29(SCM) NAT, WC BCherantha De Silva  Sri Lanka 2 December 20177th Singapore National Short Course Swimming Championship 2017 Singapore, Singapore [30]
50m Butterfly 23.48(SCM) NAT, WC BCherantha De Silva  Sri Lanka 2 December 20177th Singapore National Short Course Swimming Championship 2017 Singapore, Singapore [31]
100m Butterfly 52.19(SCM) NAT, WC BCherantha De Silva  Sri Lanka 1 December 20177th Singapore National Short Course Swimming Championship 2017 Singapore, Singapore [31]
200m Butterfly 1.57.99(SCM) NAT, WC BCherantha De Silva  Sri Lanka 1 December 20177th Singapore National Short Course Swimming Championship 2017 Singapore, Singapore [32]
200m Butterfly 2.05.10(LCM) NATCherantha De Silva  Sri Lanka 10 March 201753rd Milo/Pram Malaysia Open Swimming Championship Melaka, Malaysia [33]

References
  1. "Thanyapura Health & Sports Resort - Optimise Your Life". Thanyapura Phuket. Retrieved 19 March 2018.
  2. "5 National records (SCM)".
  3. "1 National record (LCM)".
  4. "World Championships qualifying times".
  5. "Erandhi, Cherantha Adjudged Best Sports Stars". The Sunday Leader. Retrieved 29 August 2016.
  6. "Lane 0".
  7. "Lane 0 -Swimswam".
  8. "Lane 0".
  9. "Junior World Championships" (PDF).
  10. "K. T. Cherantha de Silva". My Swim Results. Kentgold Holdings Pty Ltd. Retrieved 29 August 2016.
  11. "Mixed 4x100m Freestyle Relay". Fina: World Championships.
  12. "Hangzhou". Papare.com.
  13. "Hangzhou2". Papare.com.
  14. "Cherantha de Silva". Glasgow 2014 - Commonwealth Games. Retrieved 29 August 2016.
  15. Abeysekera, Anuradha (16 May 2016). "Cherantha sets two Lankan swim marks in Malaysia". The Daily News. Retrieved 29 August 2016.
  16. "Cherantha de Silva Makes History for Sri Lanka in Singapore". SwimSwam. 2 December 2017.
  17. Ranasinghe, Dinushki (2 December 2017). "Cherantha de Silva outshines himself overseas". ThePapare.com.
  18. "Swimming: Two women and four men to represent Sri Lanka at CWG 2018". The Sunday Times. Colombo, Sri Lanka. 19 February 2018. Retrieved 18 March 2018.
  19. Ranasinghe, Dinushki (1 March 2018). "Know your swimmers for Commonwealth Games 2018". www.thepapare.com. Dialog Axiata. Retrieved 18 March 2018.
  20. "CWG2018".
  21. "CWG20182".
  22. "CWG20183".
  23. "AsianGames".
  24. "Asian Games".
  25. "FINA Scholarship Programme at Thanyapura Health & Sports Resort". Thanyapura Phuket. 28 March 2017. Retrieved 10 April 2017.
  26. "Kimiko Raheem and Cherantha De Silva look at Olympic Prospects". Aquatic Sports Lanka. Archived from the original on 11 September 2016. Retrieved 29 August 2016.
  27. "Cherantha's Scholarship".
  28. "FINA Scholarship".
  29. http://www.thepapare.com/cherantha-de-silva-outshines-himself-overseas/. Missing or empty |title= (help)
  30. http://www.thepapare.com/cherantha-de-silva-outshines-himself-overseas. Missing or empty |title= (help)
  31. Ranasinghe, Dinushki (2 December 2017). "Cherantha de Silva outshines himself overseas". Retrieved 25 April 2019.
  32. "Chernatha de Silva makes history for Sri Lanka in Singapore". swimswam.com. 2 December 2017. Retrieved 25 April 2019.
  33. http://www.sundaytimes.lk/article/1018901/swimming-cherantha-de-silva-sets-new-national-record-in-200m-butterfly-event. Missing or empty |title= (help)
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