Sri Lanka excels at world scrabble championship

The winning team! (L-R) Thirandi De Silva (Ladies College), Janul De Silva (Royal College), Vignesh Pirapaharan (S. Thoma's College), Lambotharan Yoganathan (LIS Wattala), Hasindu Arumapperuma (RC), Aabid Ismail (RC), Migara Jayasinghe (LIS Wattala), Thalakshman Yoganathan (LIS Wattala), Janidu Karunaratne (LIS Wattala), Radinka Dissanayake (Bishop’s College)

Young Sri Lankan Scrabblers bagged several awards at the World Youth Scrabble Championship (WYSC) including the prize for the Best Team.This is the first time Sri Lanka won the Team award. It was placed third in 2014.

Janul de Silva of Royal College won the Best Player in the Under 14 category while Vignesh Pirapaharan won the second place.

Three time world champion Nigel Richards with Junul, Thirandi and Lambotharan

This was Janul's second appearance at the WYSC who won fourth place overall. Thirandi de Silva of Ladies College was the only girl in the top ten and placed sixth place.

Veteran Lambotharan Yoganathan, making his final WYSC appearance won the Eighth place (Trophies were awarded to top 10 players). Sri Lanka was the only country with three top slots out of the ten and won the award for Best Team. No other country had more than one in the top ten category.

Migara Jayasinghe, the previous winner of the Under 14 and Under 12 titles, making his 6th appearance won the prize for the highest game with a staggering 693 points in the very first round of the tournament.

Other players also performed well with two others finishing in the top 15. Both missed out on the top ten placings after being defeated by other Sri Lankan players.

Highest rated scrabble player in the world Nigel Richards with the best under 14 scrabble player in the world Janul de Silva.

The WYSC was organized by the World English Language Scrabble Players Association, for players under 18 years. It’s held once a year in different countries.

Best team -

Best player under 14 - Janul
Overall fourth place - Janul
Overall sixth place - Thirandi
Overall eight place - Lambotharan

The tournament was held at the University of Western Australia, Perth from October 31 to November 2

Results could be viewed on:
http://www.youthscrabble.org/wysc2015/index.html
The ten youngsters with the highest average ratings over the past 20 months were selected.