Thilini revels in challenges

Chinthana WASALA

She is stronger than she appears to be. Her beauty hides her toughness. She likes challenges and this Kandyan girl is the first ever woman shuttler to represent Sri Lanka at the Olympics. She is none other than Thilini Sunari Jayasinghe, known as Thilini Jayasinghe.

The latest addition to the 25 year old girl's medal count was achieved at her home town, Kandy, at the Central Province Open Badminton Championship where she emerged champion, beating almost all Sri Lanka's well known women shuttlers including Achini Rathnasiri and Chandrika de Silva. "At the Kandy Open, I would have been happier if I got a chance to beat the girl who beat me in a recent game .

I wonder why she skipped such an important tournament"

She insists that she mainly focuses on international events rather than the local tournaments.

"I do not play serious badminton at local tournaments, the fact being that I have a bigger target in the international arena.

Thilini was selected to represent Sri Lanka at the previous Olympic Games according to the points system of the International Badminton Federation. She recalls that she achieved that feat at a time which she did not have a considerable amount of support from the badminton officials.

"Even with all the support from every possible angle, some of the renowned shuttlers failed to enlist to the Sri Lankan contingent for the Beijing Olympics.

Even now, I am in the 166th position in the international rankings and I'm ahead of all the other Sri Lankan shuttlers".

The Lankan badminton queen's final target is the 2012 Olympic Games in London. She is happy that she made it to Beijing Olympics but prior to that, she targets some of good international ranking tournaments. Her next aim is to improve her world rankings and play in a few top grade tournaments in Europe and Asia.

According to her, some champion shuttlers who failed to achieve such a feat that she did, are making statements saying that she uses much power hands to clear her path to the Olympic.

"I did what I did without any help from anyone, and I will repeat it without such any invisible hand clearing my path.

First of all, those who criticize me should concentrate on their success other than blocking some other's progress" added Thilini.

She gives maximum credit to her coach Manjula Fernando who is a well known former national shuttler. "He was the only one who stood by me during hard times in my career. When I lost after the Olympics, no one came forward to be my coach. He helps me in every way he could.

The desire to take part in Olympics and bring global recognition to Sri Lanka has been her goal for many years since she started her badminton career at school at the age of thirteen.

"I like challenges, no matter who or what blocks my path, I will achieve what I target." Promises Thilini.