Sri Lankan cricket saw its most memorable moment when Arjuna Ranatunga led his team to the 1996 World Cup beating Sri Lanka’s ‘old enemy’ Australia in the final in Lahore and, in the same year, a girl left the same sport, cricket, so as to take to another sport. She is Renu Chandrika de Silva who took to badminton after leaving more popular game of cricket.
It is not the time to debate about her choice between badminton and Cricket but it’s time to look at her badminton career so far, which has brought honour to her mother country on several occasions.
Chandrika de Silva has won the national title on 11 occasions including her this year’s win and her record is the highest for a local player.
Beginning of Carrier
"I began my carrier in 1982," said Chandrika when "Sunday Island – Sportstar"interviewed her recently.
"I had my basic education at Swarnapali Maha Vidyalaya, Anuradhapura. When I was studying at grade three or four, I was lucky to have my first experience in the sport of badminton. That was in 1982."
A way back in 1986, Chandrika participated in her first ever top level competition at the North-East Open Badminton Championship. There, she won in Girls Singles.
Chandrika’s victory in Javelin Throw at the All-Island Schools Athletic Championship in 1993 shows that her dominance wasn’t only in badminton those days. She was a fine athlete, cricketer, a volleyball player and a netball player.
Golden moments
The veteran Lankan badminton player then saw her golden moments at various international meets.
In 2005, she became champion in the Singles representing Sri Lanka in the Nepal International Satellite Championship where many of the other well-known Asian countries took part, such as India, Pakistan and Bangladesh.
Teaming up with Olympian Thilini Jayasinghe, Chandrika qualified to the top eight in the Asian Badminton Championship in 2005. Asian Championship is one of the toughest championships you could find due to the participation of world No.1 China.
She also qualified to the top sixteen in the Commonwealth Games in 2002 held in Manchester, United Kingdom.
SAG Games
The veteran’s talents have earned a gold, silver and bronze medal for Sri Lanka in the South Asian Championship. She won a SAG gold medal in Mixed Doubles in the 1997 SAG games held at India. She teamed up with Thusara Edrisinghe to win that medal.
In 2004 and 2006, teaming up Diluka Karunaratna, she won a SAG Silver and Bronze respectively.
Apart from these international Championships, Chandrika have brought glory for Sri Lanka on many other occasions.
"Comparing to our early days, the players today have more facilities than us but I think our coaching must improve. If we are thinking about an Asian medal or any other international medal, we must check players weakness personally and treat them individually to see an improvement on Sri Lankan badminton," Chandrika added.
This year’s Nationals –
Chandrika de Silva exhibited her experience and apart from defending her singles title, she bagged two more events as well.
Along with the singles and mixed doubles, Chandrika also won the women’s doubles securing all three titles possible for a single player
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