Achini Ratnasiri and Upuli Samanthika with the deputy President of the Sri Lanka Badminton Association, Parakkrama Basnayake pose for a photograph on their arrival. Pic. by Prasad Kumaranasinghe
by Manjula D. Phillips
Young shuttles Achini Ratnasiri and Upuli Samanthika were able to crown Sri Lanka with a gold medal at an international badminton competition. They won gold for the women’s double event at the Iran Fajal International Badminton competition, worked off from February 16 to 19 at Tehran, Iran.
Thirty one countries participated in this Championship, organized and conducted by Iran Badminton Association.
Achini and Upuli, the national champions of the women’s double event here beat two Canadian shuttles (Chameni Redd and Nicole Gather) in the grand final of the event. Incidentally, the Sri Lanka duo who are just 17 years of age beat a pair ranked 17th in the world rankings.
Achini Ratnasiri is also the current national women’s Champion. She won the title last month at the 58th Badminton Nationals.
"I am quite happy about our performances at the competition. It’s especial because we are still school girls," said Achini in a telephone interview.
"Competitors from 12 countries took part in the event and it was a great pleasure to win the title for the country by beating all of them. It was a nice experience to beat them in the finals by 2-0," she said.
Incidentally, the Sri Lanka shuttlers had struggled to find sponsors to take part in this international event. In response to a query about hardships experienced Achini said that a part of her expenses were born by a sponsor, while her partner had to find her own expenses.
"Yes. We found it difficult to find sponsors. My sponsor paid half of my air ticket while I had to find the other half and money for my other expenses. My partner had to find all the expenses on her own."
Achini said that World Badminton Championship is her next international event and she is currently focusing on it. The World Badminton Championship will be held in August in England.
Meanwhile, she also thanked her coach Srimal Aponso, her school Principal and her parents for helping her to reach international level in badminton.
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