The hills were alive with the swish of rackets and smashing shuttles as the popular Summer Season Badminton Level I Championships came to a close last week. What was noteworthy was the performances of Sri Lanka’s top shuttlers who left no room for contention by winning all the plums of the scintillating competition. With Olympic prospect Niluka Karunaratne away on the international qualifying circuit and brother Dinuka domiciled in the UK on an advanced training program, the rest of the Elite Squad were equal to the task.
Ranthushka Karunatilake, for long in the shadows of his more renowned exponents came out fighting to get the better of the seasoned Buwaneka Gunetileke. The hunger Ranthushka displayed was plain to see for after giving up the first set, he clawed his way back to surprise the senior partner with a nerve wracking battle that went to the wire with a 21-19 score in the two following sets. Earlier, he partnered Buwaneka to clinch the men’s doubles with an overwhelmi
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by Reemus Fernando
Southern Stars were given a rousing start to Li Ning – Lanka Shuttle Challenge 2020 by Sachin Dias and Hasini Ambalangoda as they secured two wins for their team to record 6-1 in the tie against Northern Knights captained by Olympic hopeful Niluka Karunaratne on the opening day of the tourney in Colombo.
Sachin and Hasini won their men’s and women’s singles encounters respectively before combining to beat Karunaratne and Thilini Hendahewa 2-0 in the mixed doubles. Fancied Karunaratne and Hendahewa were beaten 21-9 in the first set and later fought hard in the second set but were beaten 21-19.
Sri Lanka have suffered a major blow ahead of the tour of South Africa with the team’s senior most player Angelo Mathews being ruled out with a right hamstring injury. Chairman of Selectors Ashantha de Mel confirmed to The Island that Mathews will be out for about four weeks but expected him to be fit for the home Test series against England.
Mathews, who captained Colombo Kings on Sunday’s semi-final clash against Galle Gladiators in the Lanka Premier League was in pain as he was bowling and he left the field.
The former captain has been plagued by a series of injuries in the last three years and missed lot of cricket.
Top seeds Luka Knese and Thehan Wijemanne advanced to the quarter-finals of the men’s singles, while Anika Seneviratne, the top seed in the women’s singles and her sister Alana gave walk overs to their opponents in the women’s singles of the Clay Court Nationals continued at the Sri Lanka Tennis Association courts on Tuesday.
In the women’s singles, Nelini Jayasuriya (bt. Vonara de Alwis 6-0, 6-1) and Savini Jayasuriya (bt. Arella de Zoysa 6-1, 6-0), Hasali Gajaba (bt. Tania Doloswala 6-2, 6-2), Sethmi Sumanaweera (bt. Zeenath Zihar 6-1, 6-1), Janali Manamperi (bt. Saajida Razick 7-5, 6-4) and Oneli Perera (bt. Dinethya Dharmaratne 6-4, 6-4) won their matches to reach the quarter-finals.