Our TT pride
Anushka WITHANAGE
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Ishara Madurangi |
A village lass M. B. Ishara Madurangi hailing from Ambalangoda is the
pride of Sri Lanka’s women’s table tennis. She is both the junior and
senior national champion which is a remarkable feat. A student of
Devananda College, Ambalangoda, Ishara, studying in Grade 12 for her
Advanced Level Examination, is the No. 1 women’s seed. But Ishara,
laments the facilities provided for table tennis by the Table Tennis
Association of Sri Lanka (TTASL).
“If there are better facilities the standard would go up. But it is
with such constraints where we have to buy the rubber for our racquets
that we have to compete, particularly at international level. A TT
racquet rubber costs Rs. 3,000 and that is quite a price for a player;
especially if you are a student from a middle income family whose
breadwinner has to sweat to keep the home fires burning and spend on his
or her children’s sports and studies.
|
ISHARA
FAVOURITES
Dress: Denim trouser, teeshirt
Food : Chocolate
Sportsman: Timo Bole |
What is notable about Ishara is that at 18 years she is sandwiching
time between studies and sports to build her table tennis career.
Internationally, she has won a bronze medal in a under-15 singles
tournament in New Delhi, a silver in the U-18 singles event and bronze
in the doubles.
She also did well to take sixth place in the women’s category of the
world junior singles championship held in China. Incidentally, the
silver medal in New Delhi was the first medal won by a Sri Lankan in the
sport.
Her achievements have won her national recognition being the team
captain.
She skippered the team to the 2006 South Asian Junior Table Tennis
Tournament in Culcutta and landed a silver and a bronze in the U -18
singles and doubles events respectively.
Ishara has also been selected to represent Sri Lanka at the World
Junior Schools’ Table Tennis Tournament to be held in India this year
and at the Junior Tournament in China.
She was drawn to the sport by her brother who used to play table
tennis for fun, and that influenced me to try my hand in 1997.
“From there it was all table tennis for me,” recalled Ishara whose
coach is A. W. Anuralal.
She is also looking forward to her big moment where Ishara is having
high hopes of winning a medal for her country at the forthcoming SAAF
Game. |
