Mihiliya and Shamil show up well

Anuraddha ABEYSEKERA

The only two local participants, Mihiliya Methsarani and Shamil Waqeel brought honour to Sri Lanka in the recently concluded fifth Milo Prince KL Juniors' International Open Squash Championship, worked off in Kuala Lumpur, Malaysia. The tournament was held at the NSC Squash Centre, Jalan Duta from December 14 to 18.

Mhiliya, a student of Sirimavo Bandaranaike Vidyalaya, Colombo, contested in the main draw girls under-15 event and emerged second runner up while Shamil, a lad from D.S. Senanayaka College was placed fourth in the main draw boys' under-13 event.

Mihiliya created a major upset by defeating the second seed of the under-15 main draw, Iranian player Sogol Samoodi for the third place (7-11, 12-10, 11-9, 5-11, 11-5) after a tough contest which went to five sets. Earlier she went down to the top seeded Indian player Harshit Kaur after a hard fought five sets in the semi finals.

Ultimately Harshit clinched the under-15 champion title.

Winners of the U-15 girls event (From left) runner up Gillian May Ling (Malaysia), winner harshit Kaur (India), second runner up Mihiliya Methsarani (Sri Lanka) and third runner up Sogol Samoodi (Iran).	Mihiliya Methsarani with Asian Squash Federation (ASF) Secretary Srivatsan Subramaniam	Shamil Wakeel after receiving his award from SAF Secretary Srivatsan Subramaniam