Editorial

Security

Politics

World

Letters

Sports

Obituaries

Archives

by LAL GUNESEKERA

Duminda Jayakoddy and Chandrika de Silva have been selected to lead Sri Lanka's Thomas Cup and Uber Cup sides at the preliminary rounds to be staged in Eindhoven, Netherlands from February 17 to 24. The Sri Lanka contingent is scheduled to leave the country on Thursday (February 14).

The President of the Sri Lanka Badminton Association (SLBA), Dr. A.R.L. Wijesekera, who will be the Chef-de-mission Cum Manager, told the 'Sunday Observer' that he was grateful to the Minister of Youth Affairs and Sports, Johnston Fernando, for providing Rs. 1.2 million for Sri Lanka's participation. Earlier, the Ministry, allocated only Rs. 5 lakhs and decided to send only the men's side for the Thomas Cup, but after representations were made decided to send the women's side too for the Uber Cup and released a sum of Rs. 1.2 million.

The singles for Sri Lanka in the Thomas Cup will be played by Manjula Fernando, Duminda Jayakody and Niluka Karunaratne, who has passed a fitness test, while the two doubles combinations are Jayakody and Manjula Fernando and the other D.D. Ranasinghe and Udaya Wanasinghe. For the Uber Cup, the singles will be played by Chandrika de Silva, Thilini Jayasinghe and Sureni Nandasiri, while the two doubles pairs are Chandrika de Silva and Sriyani Deepika, Sureni Nandasiri and Nadeesha Gayanthi.

The 10 players (five men and five women) are at present at a residential camp under K.S. Pushpakumara (coach) who is also going to the Netherlands and Kingsley Nallathamby, a former national champion and Thomas Cup player. The Assistant Manager of the side will be M.U. De S. Kalupahana.

Sri Lanka are in Group 'F' for the Thomas Cup together with Finland (seeded), Bulgaria, Ukraine and Norway, while in the Uber Cup, Sri Lanka are in group 'E' alongside Bulgaria (seeded), Hungary, Belarus and Iceland. There are six groups in the Thomas Cup and five in the Uber Cup.

The winners of each group play each other for ranking and the losers play each other to decide the third and fourth places, while only three teams qualify for the final stages of both the Thomas Cup and Uber Cup.

News | Business | Features | Editorial | Security
Politics | World | Letters | Sports | Obituaries

Produced by Lake House
Copyright 2001 The Associated Newspapers of Ceylon Ltd.
Comments and suggestions to :Web Manager