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| Sunday, 6 November 2005 |
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Yehan Ranasinghe - a rising star in Shuttle game Thomian schoolboy Yehan Ranasinghe at 16 years and 10 months is bubbling with enthusiasm to do well, both in studies and the sport that he loves - Badminton. He is right now in the Sri Lanka team and played in the Indian Satellite tournament in New Delhi last month and has also been picked into the South Asian Games squad Asian Games next year. That Yehan would go places in badminton was forecast from his early days and has been at it for around 9 years now. The turning point in his badminton came in September 2003 when Vijitha de Silva came as coach of S. Thomas' College, Mount Lavinia badminton and Ranasinghe showed tremendous improvement from the first tournament he played. At the 46th Novices Championships, he ended up as runner-up in the men's singles and at the 34th Junior National Championships, he became under 17 boys champion. Being keen as mustard in badminton, he has sent to the Prakash Padukone Badminton Academy in Bangalore in 2004 and 2005 and earlier this year, between July 26 and 30, went to Bali. Indonesia for the Milo Junior Badminton Championships. He played for the Sri Lanka under 19 team. Ranasinghe probably performed best in the 35th Junior National Championships where he ended up as runner-up in the boys singles in his first year in the under 19 age group. He was beaten in the final by Dinuka Karunaratne 15-10, 15-9. Dinuka Karunaratne was the 2004 under 19 champion and Sri Lanka's No. 3. In the semi-finals, Yehan did well to beat Eranga Fernando as Maliyadeva Kurunegala 15-9, 15-9. Fernando was 2004 runner-up in the under 19 age group and national pool player. It is not only in badminton that he was excelled, Ranasinghe is also a keen student and has passed the G.C.E. Ordinary Level with fine results and is presently studying for G.C.E. Advanced Level in the Mathematics stream. He is also a prefect at school and is involved a great deal in extra-curricular activities - he is in the interact club and a member of the Western Band. Badminton is now a sport that demands a lot of training as it is competitive and to be at the top calls for great devotion and in this respect he has been guided on the correct path initially by Priyantha Wijesekera - a former National Champion and Shaun Sheik and present coach Vijitha de Silva. A.C. de S. |
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