Sri Lankan squash players out to give a good display

Chris DHAMBARAGE

The Sri Lankan players will be looking to produce a good performance when the third Asian junior individual squash championships gets underway at the Gymkhana Club courts, Maitland Crescent and at the Hotel Cinnamon Lakeside courts in Colombo today.

The opening ceremony of the tournament took place yesterday at the Hotel Cinnamon Lakeside with the participation of all players, coaches and officials of the participating teams.

Players from 14 countries from the Asian Squash Federation's member nations are billed to take part in this international event. Among them are Bahrain, China, Hong Kong, India, Iran, Japan, South Korea, Kuwait, Malaysia, Nepal, Pakistan, Singapore and Sri Lanka

The inaugural Asian Masters Squash Championships will also be worked out at the same venues in Colombo during this same period. This is a new event in the ASF Calendar which has drawn unexpected interest and entries from the Asian Masters.

This major event is being sponsored by Dialog Broadband Services and the Ministry of Sports with Sri Lankan Airlines as the 'Official Airline' of the third Asian Junior Squash Championships.

This five-day long tournament will consist of four main events which includes the boys and girls under 15, under 19, apart from which there will be five masters' events for over 35, 45, 50, 55 and ladies over 35.

Among the 32 member strong Sri Lankan contingent are the country's top ranked junior players. In the boys under 19 event Sri Lanka will be depending on Gihan Suwaris, D. S. Gunawardena and Binura Jayasuriya. In the girls under 19 tournament Sri Lanka will be banking on Sandali Gomes, Sharya Guruge, Nadhini Udangawa, Kavini Amarasekera, Nimasha Rupasinghe, Mandhakini Gunasekera, Dulakshi Elikawela, Gayara Jayasuriya and Mithma Nanayakkara.

However the cynosure of all eyes will be on Deepika Pallikal of India who was last year's runner up in the British Juniors under 19 event and is the hot favourite to win the girls Under 19 title with some opposition expected from the Malaysian and Hong Kong players.