An Eight-member Sri Lanka Junior Badminton team left for Nepal yesterday to take part in the South Asia Regional Junior Badminton Championship which will be held from August 18 to 22 at the National Sports Council in Tripureshwor, Kathmandu.
Players who are Under 17 and 19 are eligible to compete separately in boys’ and girls’ categories, while this will be a good opportunity for youngsters to gain more exposure, said Sri Lanka Badminton President Rohan de Silva.
SLB already plan to groom youngsters and they’ve held Provincial level young shuttler pools and given all facilities. SLB Vice President Roshan Gunawardena who is in charge of coaches and the National pool makes a fine effort to develop the provincial-level pools. They conduct Provincial Pools covering all over the country.
This Nepal tour is more important as all leading Young shutters from the Asian and South Asian regions are expected to take part in this event which is organized by Badminton Asus and hosted by Nepal Badminton Association.
Sri Lankan Team, comprising experienced players as well as promising players with 17-year-old National women’s champion Ranithma Liyanage being the key attraction of their tournament. Ranithma from Christ Church Girls’ College, Baddegama, is presently number one in girls under 17 and 19 which carries great potential to come up and Sri Lanka Badminton is concentrating on Ranithma for the next Olympics in France next year.
Apart from Ranithma Liyanage, the team includes Nethmi Amaya Ratnayake, Sithuli Ranasinghe, Ranumi Suhasnie Manage, Senuth Sethmitha Perera, Keneth Aruggoda, Thidasa Irushika Weragoda, and Hiruka Sahanmith. These youngsters have shown their potential in the recent domestic tournaments with few of them having early International experience. Former National shuttler Hasitha Chanaka is also with the team as a coach while Dhammika Withanage is included with this team as Lady Chaperon.
Dhammika Ratnaweera