Niluka clinches a triple crown at SSC Open

Sanjaya Ariyaratne

Niluka Karunaratne bagged a triple crown while Chandrika de Silva completed a fine double at the SSC Open Badminton Championships which concluded at the SSC courts, Colombo on Sunday.

This tournament saw the highest number of participants and also offered the biggest prize money.

This nine day event was conducted by the Sinhalese Sports Club in collaboration with the Sri Lanka Badminton Association and sponsored by Bank of Ceylon (BOC).

Karunaratne collected his triple by winning the open men’s singles, open men’s doubles and open mixed doubles while top seed Chnadrika secured her double by clinching the open women’s singles and open women’s doubles. Niluka beat his brother Diluka in straight sets 24/22,21/19 in the men’s singles final.

Brothers Niluka and Diluka beat the pair of Chameera and Duminda in a two setter to take the men’s doubles title (25/23,21/11). In the mixed doubles final Niluka who paired with Nadeesha got the better of Niroshan and Chandika (21/15,21/19).

Chandrika de Silva ousted bottom seed Achini Ratnasiri in a two setter final to pocket the open women’s singles title (21/10,21/14). Chandrika teamed up with Kanchana to defeat Gayani/Subodha to be crowned women’s doubles champions (24/22, 21/18).

Meanwhile, L. N. Wijesekara and Yehan Ranasinghe created two major upsets in the men’s open singles by toppling top seed R. S. Kasun and bottom seed Nuwan Hettiarachchi respectively in the early fixtures.

The other results (finals): Under 18 girl’s singles- Lekha Shehani beat Chameka Madurawe (21/15,21/2), under 18 boy’s singles- Udara Nayanajith beat Dilshan Kariyawasam (21/14,21/15), under 18 boy’s doubles- Udara/ Amila beat Dilshan/ Nuwan (21/19,21/8), under 18 girls doubles- Lekha/ Lakshima beat Susmitha/ Oshadi (21/18,17/21,21/10), under 18 mixed doubles- Nuwan/ Achini beat Dilshan/ Chameka (21/18,21/17), veterans over 40 men’s singles- Kamal Gamlath beat Darshana Senaratne (21/12,14/3 w/o), veterans over 40 men’s doubles- Kamal/ Darshana beat Niroshan/ Bongso (22/20,21/19).