Winning the war on words

Sri Lanka 'Best Team' at World Youth Scrabble Championships:

L-R Thirandi, Janul, Vignesh, Lambotharan, Hasindu, Aabid, Migara, Thavalakshman, Janidu and Radinka

Sri Lankan Youth Scrabblers produced their best performance at a world championship by becoming the best team at the recently concluded 10th World Youth Scrabble Championship (WYSC) held in Perth, Australia. The previous best was being placed 3rd at the 9th WYSC held in Sri Lanka in 2014.

A total of 106 players, all of them under the age of 18 battled over 24 rounds to outperform each other in a 'War of Words'.

Emerging fourth was 13-year-old Royalist, Janul de Silva, while 14-year-old Thirandi de Silva of Ladies College and 17-year-old Lambotharan Yoganathan of Lyceum International School (LIS) Wattala, were placed 6th and 8th respectively.

Sri Lanka was the only country to have three players within the top 10, which propelled them to the team title.

Trophies were awarded to the top 10.

Migara Jayasinghe of LIS Wattala representing Sri Lanka for the sixth consecutive year won the award for the Highest Game Score.

Janul also secured the award for the best under 14 scrabbler, while compatriot Vignesh Pirapaharan of S. Thomas' College secured the runner-up position in the same age category.

Strong performances were witnessed from all members of the Sri Lankan team with Aabid Ismail of Royal College and Vignesh narrowly missing out on top 10 positionsm emerging 13th and 14th respectively.

Thirandi was the only female participant to secure a place in the top 10.

The other members of the Sri Lankan team were Thavalakshman Yoganathan (LIS Wattala), Radinka Dissanayake (Bishops College), Hasindu Arumapperuma (Royal College) and Janidu Karunaratne (LIS Wattala)