Thilini leads Sri Lanka for World C’ships

Chris DHAMBARAGE

The new look Sri Lanka badminton team will be looking to gain a much needed promotion into the next level when they compete in the Sudhirman Cup International World Mixed team championships which will be worked off from April 10 to 17 in China.

The four member Sri Lanka team will be spearheaded by the experienced Thilini Jayasinghe who represented the country at the previous Olympic Games in China. She will be joined by another talented player Achini Nimeshika Ratnasiri and the two men’s players Rajitha Dahanayake and Hasitha Chanaka.

Sri Lanka will compete in Group Four ‘B’ in this tournament along with Lithuania, Mongolia, Portugal and Iceland. The two top teams from this group will qualify to play in the semifinals.

There will be five main events in this tournament including the women’s singles, women’s doubles, men’s singles, men’s doubles and the mixed doubles.

Thilini Jayasinghe who is the only international experienced player in this squad believed that Sri Lanka has a very good chance of winning a medal despite the presence of two new players in the men’s team.

In fact Jayasinghe played a dominant role in the 2005 tournament and helped Sri Lanka to emerge champions of Group Five that led them to a promotion into the Group Four.

Jayasinghe stated that all top World badminton players will be vying for honours in this event and Sri Lanka are determined to make their presence felt despite the limited amount of preparations.

Jayasinghe noted that Sri Lanka is currently ranked 36th in the World rankings and should be able to reach the 30th position if all the players perform to their true potential. Jayasinghe and fifteen year old Ratnasiri are of course fresh after their recent participation in the Asian Confederation individual championships held in Korea.

The two newcomers are Rajitha Dahanayake from Dharmaraja College Kandy and 24 year old Hasitha Chanaka a former player of Dharmasoka College Ambalangoda. In fact Dahanayake is the number one ranked player in the men’s doubles and mixed double and had the satisfaction of winning a silver medal at the 2006 South Asian Games.

Dahanayake also had the credit of leading his country for the World junior championships in Malaysia and for the Asian junior and senior championships.