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| Sunday, 18 January 2004 |
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Niluka No. 165 in world and SLBA worksout ways to get higher ranking by Lal Gunasekera Sri Lanka's reigning national champion Niluka Karunaratne who had success on the European Circuit has been ranked No. 165 in the world by the International Badminton Federation (IBF) and the Sri Lanka Badminton Association (SLBA) has drawn up a programme for Karunaratne to get himself ranked higher. Karunaratne will compete in the Thailand Open Championship from January 20 to 25 and from there will move onto Kuala Lumpur where he will be in training with the Malaysian Badminton Association (MBA). He will then figure in the Thomas Cup also in Kuala Lumpur and will continue his training up to March 15 when he returns to Colombo for the South Asian Federation (SAF) Games to be staged in Islamabad in March-April. Christie Gonawala of the SLBA further told the Sunday Observer that five players (three men and two women) will participate at the Fajra International Championship in Teheran, Iran from February 1 to 5. They are - Thushara Edirisinghe, U. D. R. P. Kumara and N. John (men), while the two women are Pameesha Dishanthi and Thilini Jayasinghe. Four players are being sponsored by the Iran BF. He also disclosed that Sri Lanka will send only a men's side this year for the preliminaries of the Thomas Cup to be staged in Kuala Lumpur. They are Niluka Karunaratne, U. D. R. P. Kumara, N. John and Chameera Kumarapperuma with Sumith Guruge as manager and Pradeep Welagedera as coach. The women's standard is not up to the mark for a team to compete in the Uber Cup. The SLBA have also picked the men's and women's sides for the SAF Games to be staged in Islamabad. The men's side comprises Niluka Karunaratne U. D. R. P. Kumara, N. John, Chameera Kumarapperuma, Duminda Jayakody and Thushara Edirisinghe, while the women's side will comprise Chandrika de Silva. Thilini Jayasinghe, Pameesha Dishanthi, Amali Amarasinghe, Rasangi Kalpana and Nadeesha Gayathri, but one doubles pair will be selected soon. The SLBA also are scheduled to play in the Pakistan Satellite in November, Asian Badminton Confederation (ABC) Championship in Kuala Lumpur, Malaysia in April and the Junior ABC Championships in South Korea between April and November. Also the SLBA are making every endeavour to get down the services of Venu Gopal from Malaysia to be in charge of training Sri lanka's shuttlers for the SAF Games. |
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