Moratuwa University’s tennis tourney worked off on successful note
By Aravinda Dassanayake
TENNIS: The Annual Junior Novices Tennis Tournament organised
by the tennis team of the University of Moratuwa (UoM) in collaboration
with the Department of Physical Education of UoM was held for three days
starting on April 16, 2008 at the tennis courts of S. Thomas’ College,
Mount Lavinia.
This event, which aimed at funding the coaching programme of the
university tennis team, was the second encounter of the event so far and
was played off this time under the patronage of Sampath Bank.
The tournament was initiated as a singles competition for age
categories under 8, 10, 12 and 14 for boys and girls in its first
encounter. These competitions were held this time as well, but a further
step was taken by introducing doubles competitions for boys in the under
14 category.
Having a participation of over 140 tennis superstars of tomorrow, the
event has proven to be yet another achievement of the UoM Tennis Team,
which was reflected by the praises, and hearty comments of parents and
other well-wishers, as stated by Nimantha Baranasuriya, a member of the
organizing committee of the tourney.
The end of the event was marked by awarding Trophies and gift
certificates for the star performers of the tournament.
The learning from last year’s encounter had made this year’s event
run like clockwork which was evident in scheduling matches more
accurately and fully utilising all four courts without idling either of
them.
The organisers are already energized with plans for the next year’s
leg of the tourney. They are hoping to drop the under eight category due
to low entries in both years and add the under 16 age category with the
expectation of enhancing the competitiveness.
In addition, Nimantha said, “next year we are hoping to properly
launch the doubles event and it will be open to all age categories.”
The immense support given by the SLTA (Sri Lanka Tennis Association),
Department of Physical Education of UoM led by Mr. K.R.C.D. Rathnamudali,
Dr. S. Samarawickrama, Chairman of the Sports Advisory Board, and all
coaches and parents to make this event a huge success was fondly
remembered by the organizers.
As a final remark, Nimantha wanted to share the team’s message to the
public, and he said, “Parents should encourage their kids to take on
some kind of sport. Organising this tournament was our way of
encouraging parents to make their kids participate in the sport of
tennis. It was really lovely to see small kids who just turned six
compete with each other”.
Results: Under 8 girls singles: champ Kavisha Madugashini, runner-up:
Isurika Perera; under 10 girls: Champa Vehara Ariyaratne, runner-up:
Rebecca Ganeshwaran; under 12 girls: Champion Thewni Devarajah,
runner-up: Melissa Nugegoda; girls under 14: Champion Vinuri
Wickramaratne, runner-up:Rishmitha Sivakanthan.
Boys singles
Boys under 8: champion Selvaratnarajah Imthujan, runner-up: Navishka
de Silva; Boys under 10: champion Archana Lokuge, runner-up:
Selvaratnarajah Imthujan; Boys under 12: champion Raviraj Udishtran,
runner-up: Shashanka Gomez. Boys under 14: champion Thaaquib Nazar,
runner-up: Rajendrasingham Rajeevan.
Boys under 14 doubles: champions Thaaquib Nazar and Rajendrasingham
Rajeevan, runners-up: Shabir Huzair and Buddhika Pathirana.
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