Lankan Carromites return with fine results

Anuradha Abeysekera

Sri Lankan Carromites returned to the country after performing well at both the 4th Asian Carrom Championships and 15th SAARC Championships in Male, Maldives.

They emerged as runner-up in both Men's and Women's team events at the SAARC Championships.

Sri Lanka went down to the world champions India in all events and secured the third place in Mixed Doubles after they were defeated by the Maldivians.

Chamil Cooray won the award for the most number of slams scored in both Championships (six white slams and two black slams) which has been a great achievement for the local team. Chamil Cooray and Nishantha Fernando scored three white slams each at the SAARC Championships.

Nishantha Fernando also won the third place in the Men's Singles and Madushika Kanchanamala became fourth in the Women's Singles at the SAARC competition.

Sri Lanka clinched the runner-up shields except for the Men's Team Event, where they were pushed to the third place by the Bangladesh team (1-2) at the Asian Championships.

Nishantha Fernando's solitary victory was not supported by the other two contenders Chamil and Sheriffdeen who lost their matches against Bangladesh Carromites. Nishantha became third in the Men's Singles while Madushika Kanchanamala won the fourth place in the Women's Singles.

Chamil scored three white slams and two black slams while Nishantha claimed two white slams and a black slam in the Asian Championships.

Sri Lankan girls played well and won a set each in the Team and Singles events against the Indian contenders but was not able to overcome the strong Indians in a game.