Yoganathan excels as Lankans retain Scrabble Title

The Sri Lankan youth team fought off fierce competition from Thailand and Pakistan counterparts to emerge victorious at the 11th World Youth Scrabble Championships (WYSC) held in Lille, France recently.

The championship attracted 107 participants from 15 countries and was organized by the World English Language Scrabble Players Association (WESPA) in collaboration with Mind Sports International.

Thavalakshman Yoganathan of Lyceum International School Wattala produced the best ever performance by a Sri Lankan Scrabbler at the World Youth Championships to emerge as 1st runner-up narrowly edging out team mate Aabid Ismail of Royal College. Thava who was participating in his 4th WYSC is the holder of the Sri Lankan School Scrabbler of the Year title.

Aabid the winner of the Astar Under 15 title in Malaysia continued his good form emerging as the World Under 16 Champion in addition to emerging as the overall 2nd runner-up.

He also shared the honours for the Highest Word Award at the championship by playing "OBEDIENT" for 158 points.

Qays Sangani of Royal College playing in the WYSC for the 2nd time marched into the top ten by securing the 8th place. Qays' performance contributed immensely to the Sri Lankan team win.

Hansi Weerasuriya of Museaus College shared the honours for the Highest Word Award with Aabid and Sohaib Sanaullah of Pakistan by playing "FILAMENT" also for 158 points.

Vignesh Pirapaharan of Lyceum International School Panadura two times winner of the Sri Lanka Under 13 title was desperately unlucky not to enter the top 10 despite a fantastic performance up to the 19th round of the Championship. Janul de Silva of Royal College narrowly missed out on reaching the top 10 and had to be content with the 11th place due to a last round loss.

The rest of the Sri Lankan team contributed their might to the team win by securing important victories against opponents from other countries with strong teams. The other team members were Danusha Muhandiramge (Lyceum International School Nugegoda), Migara Jayasinghe (Lyceum International School Wattala), Thirandi de Silva (Ladies College), Radinka Dissanayake (Bishops College) and Hayati Rassool (Ladies College).

Sanchith Kapoor of UAE won the 24 round championship despite the stiff competition. The top 10 players were as follows.

Sanchith Kapoor (UAE)

Thavalakshman Yoganathan

(Sri Lanka)

Aabid Ismail (Sri Lanka)

Siriwat Suttapintu (Thailand)

Aditya Iyengar (India)

Jack Durand (England)

Hasham Hadi Khan (Pakistan)

Qays Sangani (Sri Lanka)

Kevin Bowerman (USA)

Syed Imaad Ali (Pakistan)