Jothipala - one of the best T. T. players Sri Lanka produced

Leslie FERNANDO

TABLE TENNIS:Jothipala Samaraweera, former St. John's College,Dematagoda all-round sportsman was one of the best table tennis players produced in Sri Lanka. Time was when the name of Jothipala Samaraweera was synonymous with Sri Lanka table tennis.

A touch artiste whose accomplishments both on the domestic as well as on the international scene stood out like a beacon light.

Jothipala fit as a fiddle even at the age of 57, continues to train table tennis players to reach the top.

Jothipala was `chased' away from the Community Centre at Dematagoda way back in 1967 by two players who thought the little boy (Jothi) was distracting their game of table tennis. Jothipala had wanted to see how the game is played. It was the first time he had ever witnessed a game of table tennis.

This incident spurred the youngster to show everyone that he could one day excel in this game.

A past pupil of St. John's College, Dematagoda, "Jothi" started playing table tennis from the age of 14 and was coached by N. H. Perera, a former National Champion who had captained Sri Lanka team on several occasions, and a Chinese-trained diploma holder in coaching, 'Pen-Holder' Jothipala, was a smasher who won the National title in 1972, defeating Angelo Santiago, another pupil of N. H. Perera. Jothipala, showing tremendous form won the National Titles in 1973, 1976, 1980 and 1983.

Better known as `Little Dynamite', Jothipala became an orphan at a tender age and his brother Somapala came to his rescue. In 1972, Somapala went `missing' and young Jothi found life very difficult. However, Jothipala found employment at the Colombo Municipality as a Playground Instructor, thanks to late B. A. Jayasinghe, Municipal Commissioner (a great promoter of sports) and D. H. de Silva - Charity Commissioner and Chief Playground Instructor (a famed cricketer - Nomads Captain). Both late Jayasinghe and Silva gave all the encouragement and helped Jothipala.

Jothi together with N. H. Perera, late W. G. Fernando, a versatile Cricketer and D. H. de Silva performed superbly to help the Municipality to win several Open and Government Services titles in table tennis.

Jothipala is the most widely travelled man who brought honour and glory to his motherland. He first played in the Asian Table Tennis Championships in 1971, in 1972 Asian - Afro Table Tennis Tournament in China, Asian - Afro Latin American TT Championships in 1973 in China and Asian TT Championship in 1974. From 1975 onward, he had played in all the Asian and World Tournaments held in North Korea, Japan, South Korea, China, India, Pakistan, Philippines and Singapore up to the year 1987.

In 1976 at the Asian TT Championships in North Korea was placed 9th in Asia and World ranked 33rd player.

In 1994, Jothi followed a training program in Japan where he had the satisfaction of playing against world champion Mistsu Kotuno in 1976 which stretched to 3 sets before he went down. He also won the Friendship Award. In China, Jothipala was highly commended for his speed, rhythm and stamina by Chinese coaches.

Jothipala, after his playing days, was appointed as the national coach from 1990 to 1999. He has toured with Sri Lanka contingent as coach for several international tournaments.

In addition to winning the men's single title five times, Jothipala also won the national men's double title six times, partnering his guru N. H. Perera. He partnered Miss. Belle Weerakoon and Mrs. Swarna Peiris to win the mixed doubles title on five occasions.

Jothi's first love was cricket, but his interests shifted to table tennis. Whilst playing for Colombo Municipal Council cricket team in the Government Services `D' division tournament in 1972, he scored a record unbeaten double century (278 n.o.) against the Health Department.

After leaving Colombo Municipality he worked as an Executive Assistant at the Building Materials Corporation. At BMC Jothipala also played table tennis and cricket at the Nationalized Services Tourneys and helped the BMC to become champions. Jothi's three sons Pubudu (former Asoka Vidyalaya) Tharindu and Thilina (both S. Thomas' College Mt. Lavinia followed father's footsteps and have emerged champions in their respective age groups at the All-Island Schools Tournament.

As a coach, Jothi feels that the standard in T.T. has gone down, due to lack of good coaches in the game at grass roots levels.

During his playing days, there were top qualified coaches and the standard was very high. He says that special coaching programs should be organised among the school teachers and coaches in each province and select 10 junior players (boys and girls) to be sent to China for a year or at least 6 months.

Jothi feels that the juniors' from neighbouring countries - India, Pakistan, Nepal, Burma and Thailand could be assembled and exposed to our junior talent. These players should be subjected to hard training with international exposures between the ages 15 to 20.