Prasad Silva of Emjay International Pvt Ltd and Bimandee Bandara of Hillwood College are top seeds of men’s open and women’s open singles at the 77 th National Table Tennis championship which will be played this weekend ( 16-17)at Municipal Council Indoor Stadium at Kandy .Prasad Silva is the key attraction of this tournament while apart from men’s singles he is men’s doubles and mixed doubles top seed partner and has a good chance to win a triple crown in this tournament.
Table Tennis Association of Sri Lanka ( TTASL) headed by Rahal Abeyratne this time plan to organise this TT major event at Kandy while all leading paddlers are expected to take part in this ranking event.
Prasad Silva the former Vidyartha College paddler who is in top form winning recently concluded tournaments is expected to win his maiden National crown this time while Nimesh Ranchagoda of Sri Lanka Navy ,Hiruna Warusawithana of Moratuwa University are third and fourth seeds of men’s singles . Nuwantha Niroshan of Sabaragamuwa University is named as bottom seed in men’s single event and all four are heading to reach semi finals .
Meanwhile young Bimandee Bandara the defending champion is expected to retain her women’s open title with her good form . Especially Bimandee has performed well at recent tournaments and winning all major titles and her confidence is very high
Maneesha Shalindi of GSM TT Academy is named as bottom seed of women’s open event
Hansani Piyumila of Sri Lanka Navy ,Shamalsha Dewmi of Holy Cross Gampaha are named third and fourth seeds of women’s open title . Meanwhile experienced former National champion Ishara Madurangi is not available as she is already in USA for further training to focus on next Olympics.
Prasad Silva and Chanul Dulshan are named for top seed of men’s doubles event while Nuwantha Niroshan and Chameera Gunige are the bottom seed of this event.
Bimandee Bandara partnered with Buddeepani Rajaguru are open women’s double top seed pair while Maneesha Shalindi and Kasun Pitigala are bottom seed of this event Meanwhile Prasad Silva and Dewmini Weerasena are top seed of mixed double event Bimandee Bandara and Dinesh Kanishka are bottom seed of mixed double title.
Apart from major events of open men, women singles ,doubles and mixed doubles the events of boys and girls under 9,11,13,15,17 and under 19 singles events to be conducted on this two day event organised by TTASL. The winners and runners up will receive trophies and certificates on final day ( 17) on Sunday.
Earlier last November Table Tennis junior National championship was held at Municipal Council Indoor Stadium in Kegalle.
Dhammika Ratnaweera