Seven hundred and eighty two shuttlers for Nationalised Services C’ships

Anushka Withanage

Seven hundred and eighty two competitors will take part in the 23rd Nationalised services All Island open Badminton Championships to be held from September 19 to 24 at S. Thomas’ College Indoor stadium, Mt. Lavinia from 8 a.m.

The competitors are 58 for men’s singles events, women’s singles 22, men’s doubles 59, women’s doubles 27, mixed doubles 22, under 11 boys singles 120, under 11 girls singles 73, under 13 boys singles 109, under 13 girls singles 69, under 15 boys singles 93, under 15 girls singles 48, under 17 boys singles 38, under 17 girls singles 16 and family mixed 28.

The principal sponsor of the event is Sri Lanka Telecom and at Thursday’s press conference at Ceylon Continental Hotel the National Services Badminton Association (NSBA) appreciated SL Telecom’s commitment to sponsoring the championship and all other NSBA related tournaments.

NSBA is also one of the most active and popular Badminton Associations of Sri Lanka too. The motto of NSBA is “Do things first”. In 1985, NSBA has conducted its first All Island Open Badminton Championship.

Niroshan Wijekoon and Emarley Fernando were the first winners in Men’s Singles and Women’s Singles events respectively.

In 1987, for the first time cash prizes were awarded to the winners at the 3rd All Island Open Badminton Championships.

Day by day new events were added to make this tournament the most popular Badminton event in the calendar. Mixed Doubles Family event is the most popular event out of all the events.