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| Sunday, 8 December 2002 |
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'Shuttlers need better training, exposure to reach Asian standards' by LAL GUNESEKERA Better training facilities should be provided by the Sri Lanka Badminton Association (SLBA) and much more international exposure is needed if any player in the country wants to reach Asian standards. These sentiments were expressed by 18-year-old Advanced Level student at Royal College, Niluka Karunaratne, who won the men's singles title for the second consecutive year and the men's doubles title for the first occasion at the historic Golden Jubilee National Championships of the SLBA concluded last week at the Royal College Sports Complex. Niluka created history at last year's (2001) National Championships when he became the youngest ever player to win the men's single titles at his very fist attempt. Hailing from the Southern town of Ambalangoda, which has produced numerous top class shuttlens of repute, young Niluka was first a student at Dharmasoka upto 1998 before joining Royal College Colombo. He started badminton when he was just seven years of age, and since then has been coached by his father Louis who was a better cricketer than a shuttler having represented Bloomfield. Whilst at Dharmasoka, Niluka, fared very well at the Junior National Championships where in his first attempt he was the runner-up in the under-11 age group in 1994. In the following year (1995), he won the title and followed it up with the under-13 and under-15 singles and doubles titles in 1996 and 1998 too. Having joined Royal, he retained the under-15 singles title in 1999 and went on to win the coveted Triple Crown in October last year (2001). Niluka's first exposure overseas was at the South Asian Association of Regional Co-operation (SAARC) Under-16 Championships in the Maldive Islands in 2000 and then at the World Championships in Spain in June last year (2001) where he won gold medals in the singles, doubles and mixed doubles events. He then went on to represent Sri Lanka at the ABC Championships in Indonesia in 2000 where he had the satisfaction of beating the No -1 ranked players of Cyprus, Slovakia and South Africa to help his country finish runners-up to South Africa in Group VI. He also figured at the Under-19 ABC Championships in Malaysia reaching the pre quarter-finals of the singles only to lose to Thailand's No-1 ranked player. This year (2002), Niluka represented the country at the Thomas Cup in the Netherlands. Then at the Satellite in Bangladesh, he ranched the semi-finals of the singles losing to an Indian and lost in the quarter-finals of the doubles. At the Commonwealth Games in Manchester, Niluka finished in the last 16 out of 64 competitors losing in the pre-quarter finals to New Zealand's No. 1 Geoff Bellingham who is ranked No. 23 in the world. On his way, he had the satisfaction of beating Canada's No. 1 and Guency's No. 1 too. He also represented Sri Lanka at the Asian Junior Championships Malaysia, but lost in the first-round of the singles in a three-setter to China's No. 1 who was the top seed. He lost to Hong Kong's No. 1 in the first-round at the Asian Games in Busan, South Korea and at the World Junior Championships in Sough Africa, he lost to Germany's No. 1 in the second-round. Niluka was also adjudged the Best Sportsman of the Year of the Western Province Schools, this year. |
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