Five shuttlers for training in Malaysia

By Lal Gunasekara

Two men's shuttlers and three women's players are to leave for Malaysia by Wednesday to attend a training session in preparation for the South Asian Games to be staged in Colombo next month (August). They are scheduled to return to the country by August 5.

The two men's shuttlers are the Karunaratne brothers (Diluka and Dinuka), while the women's shuttlers are Chandrika de Silva, Thilini Jayasinghe and Nadeesha Gayanthi.

Sri Lanka's world ranked shuttler, Niluka Karunaratne, is presently attending a two-year training program at an International Badminton Federation (IBF) centre in Germany.

He selected his own centre and it is an Olympic Solidarity Course with the expenses being met by the IBF directly to Olympic Solidarity. He will be in training in Germany upto 2008 Olympic Games in China.

Meanwhile, the Sri Lanka Badminton Association (SLBA), has conducted the final trails for the South Asian Games, where eight men and eight women will compete in the Team (3 Singles, 2 Doubles) and Individual (2 Singles, 2 Doubles and 2 Mixed Doubles). The sector will pick the side in a day or two as the SLBA has to send up the names by tomorrow (Monday) to the NOC.

Bhutan and Afghanistan have not yet confirmed their participation to date. while the countries who will be in the fray are Sri Lanka, India, Pakistan, Bangladesh, Nepal and the Maldive Islands.