Sampath Bank champions

Yasaratne GAMAGE

Sampath Bank ‘A’ shuttlers emerged champions in the Mercantile Badminton Association Inter Firm Doubles Team Champions by defeating Hatton National Bank in the finals by 3 - 1 at St Thomas’ Sports Complex recently.

Commercial Bank won the cup championship when they defeated Dialog A by 3-2. Ceylinco had the better of Sri Lankan Airways by 3-2 to emerge the plate champions. Airport and Aviations won the bowl championship by overcoming Sampath Bank B by 3-0.

36 teams from mercantile firms battled in eight groups ( group A to H ) in the group stage . The winners in each stage were lined up in the knock out stage for the grand slam draw, runners up for cup draw, third place for plate draw and the fourth places and other losers for the bowl draw.

Sampath Bank A were undefeated through out the tournament. They overcame Commercial Bank in the first round . They also defeated Mas Holdings by 3-0 in the quarter finals and NDB in the semi finals by 3-1.

The runners up, HNB entered the finals by defeating IBM in the first round by 3-0 after having received a walkover from HDDEx. In the quarter final and semi finals they overcame HSBC ( 3-0 ) and Seylan Bank ( 3-0 ) respectively.

The tournament sponsored by glitz for the second year was so competitive right from the start as many national level players including Thilini Jayasinghe, Chandrika de Silva, Nadeesha Gayathri, Hasitha Chanaka, Senaka Wijekoon, Lakshan de Silva, Hashan Anuradha, Amali Amarasinghe, Nadun Hettiarachchi. The MBA together with glitz,the sponsors, gifted badminton equipment to the students of Lumbini Vidyalaya Colombo , Buddagosha Vidyalaya Kalubowila, Model Primary School Attidiya and Mount Lavinia High School at the award ceremony.