Sampath Bank boost for Thilini Jayasinghe

Ranjan ANANDAPPA

While commending the unprecedented support rendered by her employer Sampath Bank in her badminton career , Sri Lanka's Olympic representative Thilini Jayasinghe was disappointed for not being selected to lead the Sri Lanka team at the London Olympics which will commence next week.

She said that she had all the credentials to lead the team as it is her second Olympics, the first being at Beijing ,in China in 2008 . At Beijing she represented her country as the first women's player in the badminton event.

"I am not a wild card entry as some people think, I was a reserve and as a South African player pulled out I got the opportunity through may be due to sheer luck. In the Olympic rankings I was placed 47 and only 46 could enter the fray in the women's singles events. As a South African player pulled out ,I got the opportunity to play " she said.

Niluka Karunaratne the men's singles player was selected as the captain of the Sri Lanka Olympic team.

Thilini , speaking at a press gathering at the Sampath Bank Board Room said that she was ever grateful to the bank for their fullest support given to her from the day she joined the bank in 2004 soon after leaving her school Mahamaya College, Kandy. The bank has given Thilini the liberty to indulge herself for full time practice and to take part in local and overseas tournaments which enables her to enhance her career in badminton. She has represented the bank at the mercantile tournaments and has brought many a victories.

In an endeavor to reach the qualifying stage to the Olympics, a player has to take part in at least ten overseas tournaments sanctioned by the World Badminton Federation and Thilini has taken part in at least eleven of such tournaments to gather points to enter the qualifying rounds of the Olympics. The finances for these competition was provided by the bank. She has taken part in tournaments in Namibia, Zimbabwe Syria, Malaysia, Bahrain, Bangladesh, India, Thomas and Uber Championship, French International, Bangladesh and Asian Badminton Championships.

Thilini who also excelled in swimming at Mahamaya was forced to take up the shuttle sport coincidently when she visited the Kandy YMCA gymnasium with her mother during a tournament was in progress and was asked to play in the under 9 category due to shortage of players in her age category. She won the under 9 championship and encouraged by her performance she stuck to badminton as her number one sport and did not look back there after.

She won her first national championship in 2004 defeating the then seven times national champion Chandrika de Silva who was vying the title for the eight consecutive year. If she had won, it would have been a record in the history of badminton in Sri Lanka. But it was not be as Thilina defeated Chadrika and dashed her hopes and a new women's champion emerged.

Once returned from the Olympics , Thilini was not certain of her future as a badminton player and had no intention playing for a long period of time. She is- hoping to enter wed - lock early next year. She has been granted duty leave since 2004 for practices for the two Olympics and other International championships.

Thilini made special mention of two of her sports loving personalities at the bank , Managing Director Mr. Aravinda Perera and Mr.Tharaka Ranwalam DGM (Marketing And Business Development) who have given her the fullest support in helping to reach the destination as to where she is now . Concluding, she said that when she was selected to the Beijing Olympics in China in 2008 , various firms offered employment for her, but she selected the Sampath Bank due to special reasons mainly friendly atmosphere and the rich culture.

She has partly completed her banking examination and is hoping to complete and continue working in the bank to give something in return.