Thurstanite Gihan de Silva shines in swimming

Thurstanite Gihan de Silva established a new meet record with a time 33.64 seconds in the under 19 - 50 metre Breast stroke. Gihan swimming first time in the Under 19 age group improved his timing from 34.03 record which he set up at the XIth National Schools games in 2004 while swimming in the Under 17 Category.

Gihan commenced his swimming when Thurstan opened their own swimming pool in late 2000. The Swimming pool was a donation by Old Thurstanite Lion Gratiaen Gunawardhana to mark the Golden Jubilee of the College.

At the inauguration he said that he expects all Thurstanites to have the ability to swim before they leave college and also wanted Thurstanites to make their mark at National Swimming events in the shortest possible time.

Gihan is the first to achieve his expectation and is among a number of promising youngsters who are expected to make their mark in the near future.

For Gihan, it has been a steady climb. He won this event in 2003 as well with a time of 35.21 sec and competing in the 3rd Tamil Nadu - Sri Lanka Age group championship in 2004 he came first with a time 34.89 secs and he also came first in the 4 x 50 metres Medley Relay. He is in the squad trained by Kithsiri Fonseka.

All though he laid off competitive swimming during the time he was sitting his GCE OL's but soon on his return with little training he has achieved this success.