Shuttle team to China

Chris Dhambarage

Sri Lanka will field a six member team for the Asian Badminton Championships which will be worked off from April 19 to 24 in Chengdon, China. This individual tournament which carries a total prize money of US Dollars 150,000 is organised and conducted by the Asian Badminton Federation in collaboration with the Chinese Badminton Federation.

The Sri Lanka men’s team will be spearheaded by nine times national champion Niluka Karunaratne with his younger brother and the reigning national champion Dinuka Karunaratne as the only other singles player.

This experienced pair will battle it out in the qualifying round singles tournament as well as in the doubles event. In fact they had a successful tournament last year too where both performed well to reach the second round of the men’s singles event in India.

Meanwhile the Sri Lanka women’s team will comprise four top players namely the reigning national champion Achini Rathnasiri (Visakha), former national champion Thilini Jayasinghe (Sampath Bank), Chandrika de Silva (Seylan Bank) and Upuli Samanthika (Sirimavo Bandaranaike BMV).

\Former national player Kamal Gamlath who will accompany the team as coach said that the more experienced Thilini Jayasinghe and Chandrika de Silva will compete in the singles while Achini Rathnasiri and Upuli Samanthika will participate in the doubles event. In fact up and coming player Upuli Samantika is a specialist doubles player having recently clinched the junior and senior nationals doubles event along with her partner Achini Rathnasiri.

Gamlath stated that this tournament will be of great significance as the points obtained in this event and the forthcoming competitions will be counted for the selection of players for the 2012 Olympic Games.