I want to be among the best 10 in the world

- Niluka Karunaratne in an exclusive interview with the ‘Daily News’ from Poland:

Sri Lanka’s undisputed badminton champion Niluka Karunaratne said his aim is to be within the top ten shuttlers in the world. In an exclusive telephone interview with the Daily News from Warsaw, Poland yesterday, Karunaratne, the overall captain of the Sri Lanka contingent to London 2012 Olympic Games, said he is putting the maximum effort to improve on his world ranking.

“My aim is to advance to the top ten men’s players in the world. It is not easy. I am currently ranked 49th in the world and I will make every endeavour to come within the top ten within next two years. It is a tough task but I am confident of achieving that,” the Lankan shuttle king said.

Karunaratne is currently in Poland on the last leg of his world tour to play in a series of international tournaments out of which he has won five so far. He is expected to join the Sri Lanka contingent in London later this week.

The 27-year-old ten-time Sri Lanka men’s singles national champion said a top event such as Olympics demands years of training. “Most players train two to three years to be in good shape for Olympics.

But I began my preparations last October and have been playing in several international tournaments for the past six months. That gave me a lot of confidence,” he said.

A proud product of Royal College, Karunaratne emulated his schoolmate Niroshan Wijekoon who represented Sri Lanka in badminton at the 1992 Olympic Games in Barcelona. Karunaratne said Olympic demands a great volume of dedication, devotion and hard training for several years.

He is among the top 38 men’s badminton players who will be seen in action at Wembley Arena during the London Olympiad. In his lead up to the Olympiad, Karunaratne played in international ranking tournaments in South Africa and America before moving on to Scotland, Ireland, Wales and Poland.

“I am playing the best badminton in my life and am training hard like all the professionals in the world. I want to improve match by match, sharpen my skills further and go up in the rankings,” Karunaratne added. Asked about his chances at the men’s singles competition of the London 2012 Olympic Games, Karunaratne said he will take it match by match and see the progress. “I have to take match by match and see how I advance. It depends on how you play on a particular day, how you take your opponents. I take match by match and that is how my mentality works,” he said.

“I am happy and honoured to lead my country at Olympic Games. But Olympic is the highest level of competition and demands world class skills of the highest level. It is very hard and competitive. One needs a lot of hard training and exposure when competing at this level. But I will make every effort to do well and make my country proud,” a determined Karunaratne said from Poland. Ever since winning his first major title - Under-11 All Island Age Group Championships, Karunaratne has been going great guns winning all major badminton championships in Sri Lanka.

At the age of 16, he won both the Junior and Senior National Champion simultaneously while he was also the junior triple ‘crown’ champion. His impressive early form helped him to make his Sri Lanka debut in 2000 at the Asian Championships in Indonesia

“I am really happy that I was able to make it to the Olympics. It was a great challenge and I fulfilled that. My next aim is to get into the top ten of the men’s world rankings. I will work hard to reach that goal within the next two years. If I train with more dedication and apply myself even better, I could make it,” the wonder boy in Sri Lanka badminton said.

His power-packed smashes and impressive net killings have been the hallmark of this champion shuttler who has been playing in many international tournaments to make a tremendous advancement in world rankings.

Considering his elevation to the first 50 in the world, it will not be that hard for the chanmpion Lankan shuttlers to advance further. Hailing from the Southern town of Balapitiya, Niluka Karunaratne has been coached by his father Louvie Karunaratne who has been a great source of encouragement and inspiration to his badminton career.

There is no doubt that Karunaratne will dish out “something special” at London Olympics. He is determined to set an exemplary role as the overall captain of the Sri Lanka contingent.

Besides Karunaratne, the other members of the Sri Lanka contingent are marathon runner Anuradha Indrajith Cooray, shuttler Thilini Jayasinghe, hurdler Sonali Christine Merri and swimmers Heshan Unamboowe and Reshika Udugampola.