Binupa, Chamil and Niloo win Lectra Golf Titles
 

by S. M. Jiffrey Abdeen

Binupa Wijesinghe (Men's Gross), Chamil Wickremasinghe (Men's Nett) and Niloo Jayatillake (Ladies Division) became champions at the twelve-round Lectra Golf Championship organised by the Victoria Golf and Country Resort and sponsored by Lectra Apparel Technologies France Limited and held over a period of 12 months at the Victoria Golf Course at Rajawella.

Fifteen year Binupa Wijesinghe from Wycherly International School, Colombo who is one of the rising stars in the local golf horizon repeated his last year's success in this competition.

He is one of the best golfers in the local scene since he took to this sport four years ago and it was sheer dedication and application and keeping his cool which helped him to gain success though he missed six of the 12 round contest but he still managed to aggregate 187 points having clear lead of 122 points over the runner-up Anel de Silva (65 points) who stepped into the championship mid way and played only in a few rounds.

Binupa Wijesinghe now plays to a handicap of 3 and last week he won the Calcutta Cup in Colombo apart from the many trophies which he had won this year including the prestigious Donald Steel trophy.

In third place in this Division was another 15 year old schoolboy from Ecole International School. Chamil Wickremasinghe with 63 points and Sam Gunaratne is lying fourth with 53 points followed by Priath Fernando with 39 points.

School boy Chamil Wickremasinghe who is now playing to a handicap of 9 clinched the title for the Men's Nett Championship by amassing 1968 to edge out the second placed Sam Gunaratne who had 1946 points.

Sam Gunaratne after missing the first four rounds following a jaunt abroad came into reckoning through some excellent play and almost caught up with Chamil Wickremasinghe by forging ahead at the end of the 12th round but bonus points awarded for regular played finally pushed him out.

Chamil Wickremasinghe who participated in all the rounds received 200 bonus points while Sam Gunaratne for lesser participation received 100 points which made up for the difference of 22 points between this duo in the final standing.

For Chamil Wickremasinghe it was regular play which brought him honours and helped him to down his rival Sam Gunaratne in this well contested championship. The story would have been totally different had Sam Gunaratne participated in the first four rounds where he missed valuable points.

Occupying the third place was Roshan Dias who started well before a back injury hindered his progress and missed some of the rounds mid way. He is now in Old Blighty presumably playing cricket. The Hemachandra twins Sampath and Sidath from Kandy Gateway College performed well to occupy the fourth and fifth places with 1184 and 933 points.

Versatile and lithe Niloo Jayatillake with 1730 points had a comfortable passage in the end in clinching the Ladies Division title having a clear 597 point lead over the second placed Manori Jayakoddy from the Hyundai Motor Company who managed 1133 points.

Niloo Jayatillake now plays to a handicap of 10 and was given quite a fight in the early stages by Manori Jayakoddy. But Niloo Jayatillake cool as cucumber after the first three rounds got into her stride to lift the title with ease.

Manori Jayakoddy started with a flourish leading the competition in its first three months but mid way her engine only 'revved' and failed to fire all the cylinders which resulted in Niloo Jayatillake overtaking her. In the last two rounds Manori Jayakoddy push starting herself made a valiant bid but by that time her rival had reached the winning post.

The persevering Indira Tibblins struck a bad patch mid way during the competition when her form deserted her temporarily and could aggregate only 999 points to finish second runner-up and this was not to her true potential. Veteran Suwen Selvaratnam who has won this Grand Prix previously finished third with 929 points but here again this lady golfer missed some of the rounds.