Li Ning Sri Lanka International Challenge Badminton tournament gives big exposure for Sri Lankan shuttlers while the standard of Sri Lanka badminton players in men and women’ singles and doubles is very high said Head Referee of the tournament Kong Mingmin from China.
Conducting this type of tournament is not easy but Sri Lanka Badminton has done well to organise this tournament at Dadalla Indoor Stadium in Galle said Referee Kong Mingmin who is the only lady from China for this tournament. Asian Badminton Federation gave me this opportunity to officiate as Head Referee said Kong Mingmin who is from Chengdu ,south west China.
I work as a teacher at Chengdu Sport University and impart my knowledge to students between 18-22 years .
As a Referee I have to consider players ,umpires ,Stadium condition ,it’s temperature and court standard and other facilities of the player and my duty is handling umpires and referees and here in Sri Lanka Deputy referee Sanjeewa Wijesekara and his team give good support and my senior International referee Ajith Wijayasinghe is guiding me to handle this tournament.
In 2018 I officiated World Badminton championship and my dream is to officiate in Olympics and have to go a long journey.The different type of tournaments always give valuable experience .So far this tournament is going very smoothly and hope it can finish on Sunday successfully.
Getting chance to officiate tournament like Asian Games ,Asian Championship,World championship , Commonwealth games and Olympics always give lot of experience but as a referee I wanted to be an Olympic referee and I wanted to go to that level and my present Chengdu Sports University gives me lot of encouragement said referee Kong Mingmin.
Dhammika Ratnaweera reporting from Galle