Sri Lankan Junior Paddlers for Iran

The Sri Lanka Junior Table Tennis team left for Teheran to participate in the Fuj International Table Tennis championships to be held from October 27 to 29 in Teheran/Iran.

More than 15 countries in Asia and Europe along with Sri Lanka team will take part in this tournament which will be conducted on a round robin basis with the teams grouped according to rankings.

This team is led by Kulanake Hendahewa of Royal College also includes Udaya Ranasinghe of Vidyartha and Supun Sirisena of Maliyadeva Kurunegala.

These three juniors are the best outfit for the future Sri Lanka table tennis. These three have played for the recently concluded Asian Junior TT C'ships held in Thailand.

Sri Lankas most experienced coach Jagath Rajapakse will be the coach and Manzil Muthalib will be the Manager. A point of interest is both the Manager and Coach have played together during their playing days for national sides and have represented Sri Lanka at the Junior TT C'ships in Japan 1987.

According to the coach Rajapakse the team has had rigorous practice sessions in Kandy and definitely among the medals this time.

These three players are the best for the future of Sri Lanka TT. Incidentally Rajapakse is busy putting up a big gymnasium in Gampola, Kandy with the intention of uplifting TT in Sri Lanka. In future foreign teams will come to Sri Lanka and our team too will go to European countries with the blessings of ITTF.

The team: Kulanake Hendahewa (Royal College), Udaya Ranasinghe (Vidyartha College), Supun Sirisena (Maliyadewa Kurunegala), Manzil Muthalib (Manager), Jagath Rajapakse (Coach).