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| Sunday, 10 July 2005 |
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24 junior shuttlers for Indonesian tourneys by Lal Gunesekera Twenty-four shuttlers (12 boys and 12 girls) have been selected to represent the country at the Asian Junior Championship to be staged in Jakarta, Indonesia from July 11 to 17 and the 5th Mile Junior Championship in Bali, Indonesia from July 26 to 30. The team to Jakarta includes six boys in Dinuka Karunaratne from Royal, Eranga Fernando from Maliyadeva, Buddhima Jayasundera from S. Thomas', Thilan Perera from Royal, Nayanakantha Wijesekera from Ananda and Lasitha Menaka from Sri Sumangala, while the girls are: Prathibhani Bambarandage from Devi Balika Vidyalaya, Ravihari de Silva and Gayani Perera from Anula Vidyalaya, Subodha Dahanayake from Musaeus, Sivena Alexander from Holy Cross (Gampaha) and Lakshmi de Silva from Dharmasoka. Five officials are accompanying this side. They are U.M.P. Upashantha of Royal (Chef-de-Mission), S.M. Dissanayake of Rahula (Manager), Mrs. Kanchana de Silva of Anula Vidyalaya (Assistant Manager), Mrs. N.S. Wijesinghe of Karandeniya Central (Lady Chaperone) and M.D.N. Fernando (Coach). The six boys to Bali are Sameera Sandekelum of Nalanda, Yehan Ranasinghe of S. Thomas', K.G. Vimukthi Thillekeratne of Dharmasoka, Prabash Indrajith of Sri Sumangala, Kalpa Gunawardene of St. Anthony's and Asela Tillekerathne of Royal, while the six girls includes Uma Priyangani Perera of Visakha, Erandi Bambarandage of Devi Balika, Peushani de Silva of Lindsay Girl's School, Kanishka Madushani of Devananda, Dinusha Jayamalie Perera of Holy Cross (Gampaha) and Uparna Katuwawla of Anula Vidyalaya. There are four officials accompanying this side to Bali. They are Jagath Patabendige of Royal (Manager), K.G. Tillekeratne of Dharmasoke (Assistant Manager), Ms. Eresha de Silva of Lindsay Girl's School (Lady Chaperone) and M. Dhanesh (Coach). Niluka ranked 73rd Sri Lanka's reigning national men's champion, Niluka Karunaratne, is presently ranked 73rd in the world by the International Badminton Federation (IBF). Last month (June), he lost in the men's singles quarter-finals at the Australian Open to Nichalos Kitt (England's No. 1), who was the top seed and ranked 24th by the IBF. The Lankan lost 15-17, 13-15 in 76 minutes. Then later at the New Zealand Open, Karunaratne, took his revenge by beating Kitt (17-15, 17-14) in the "quarters" of the men's singles, but lost to New Zealand's No. 1 Jeff Bellingham, who is ranked No. 40 in the world at 12-15 - 9-15. In 2004, the Lankan had beaten Bellingham. Karunaratne leaves next week for a one month training session at the Prakash Padukone Academy in Bangalore, India and then proceeds to Los Angeles, USA to compete at the World Championships from August 15 to 21. He will be accompanied by Tony Perera as manager to USA and his father Lui Karunaratne as coach. He is also scheduled to attend another coaching camp in Germany for a period of two years (2006 to 2008). He has undergone training in Germany earlier too. A spokesman for the Sri Lanka Badminton Association (SLBA) also disclosed
to the Sunday Observer that the Sri Lanka Satellite, which is an IBF event,
will be worked off at the Royal College Sports Complex from August 25 to 28
and shuttlers (both men and women) from over 20 countries, including
Australia, New Zealand, Europe and many Asian countries will compete for
honours at this tournament revived after about three years. The events to be
worked off are Men's and Women's Singles and Doubles and Mixed Doubles. |
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