Sri Lankan paddlers for Macau

S M Jiffrey ABDEEN-Kandy Sports Correspondent

Sri Lanka’s national table tennis team will participate at the 20th Asian Table Tennis Championship organised by the Asian Table Tennis Federation which will be held at Macau from February 23 to March 1.

The Sri Lanka’s women’s team will be led by the reigning national champion and No 1 ranked Ishara Madurangi of Sri Lanka Air Force. Ishara Madurangi has won the Senior national title for the past five years besides winning several other major titles. She is 22 years and is an old girl of Dharmasoka College, Ambalangoda. The players in the women’s team are 17 year old Erandi Warusavitharne who finished runner up in both junior and senior national championships in 2011, 15 year old Umaya Tharaki and Chandima Madhushani.

The men’s team will be led by the current national champion Rohan Sirisena of Sri Lanka Air Force. Rohan Sirisena is No 1 ranked at present and has won the national championship three times. The other members of the team are No 2 ranked Nirmala Jayasinghe of MAS Intimates who finished runner up at the Senior National Championship and also won the Kandy District Table Tennis Championship. No 3 ranked Dinesh Deshapriya and Sajith Priyadharshana.

The team has been hard at practices at the Jagath Rajapakse Indoor Stadium at Peradeniya during the last few days and they have been put through their paces.

National Table Tennis Coach Jagath Rajapakse will accompany the team. He said that both the men and women paddlers are in fine spirits and they should give a good account of themselves, though they will be up against the best in Asia. Saman Ratnayake will be the Manager of the team.