Monday, October 22, 2012

Niluka wins triple crown at 60th Badminton nationals

Niluka wins triple crown at 60th Badminton nationals

 

http://sports.dailymirror.lk/wp-content/uploads/2012/10/IMG_6779.jpgSri Lanka's number one badminton player, Niluka Karunaratne won Triple Crown at the 60th National Badminton Championship held at the Royal College Sports Complex Sunday, October 21. Thilini Pramodhika won two titles, including the all important women's singles.

 Niluka beat his own brother Dinuka in the finals with scores of 21/15, 22/20 to confirm his status as the top ranked player in the country. This is the 11th time he won the national championships.
After a clamorous encounter, Thilini Pramodhika beat Lekha Shehani by 21/11 and 21/14 to emerge as the champion.
Ms. Ranjani Jayakody, Director General of the Department of Sports Development was the chief guest at the awards ceremony. 
Final Results:
Men's Singles
Niluka Karunarathne beat Dinuka Karunarathne (21/15, 22/20)
Men's Doubles
Niluka Karunarathne and Dinuka Karunarathne beat Hasitha Chanaka and  Eranga Fernando (21/19, 21/14)
Women's Singles
Thilini Pramodhiak beat Lekha Shehani (21/11, 21/14)
Women's Doubles
Oshadi Kuruppu and Kavidi Ishadika beat Sushmitha Ilangakoon and Chandrika de Silva (21/14, 21/14)
Mix Doubles
Niluka Karunarathne and Thilini Pramodhika beat Chandrika de Silva and Lasitha Menaka (22/20, 21/17
(www.dailymirror.lk)

Thursday, October 18, 2012

Shambolic shuttle showpiece

 Shambolic shuttle showpiece

The Sri Lanka National Badminton Championships has been embroiled in chaos just a day before the country’s highest profile badminton event is to begin, sources told “Daily Mirror”.
Sri Lanka Badminton Association (SLBA), which conducts the event, had not released the seedings or a draw for the tournament till last evening putting all the players in a difficult position.
The SLBA which has been plagued by controversies has failed to find a sponsor so far for the tournament and no prize money has been announced yet. If there is no prize money on offer, that will be a deviation from the age old practice at the nationals.The showpiece event has also been hit by the absence of several high profile players such as former National champion and Sri Lanka’s representative at this year’s Olympic Games Thilini Jayasinghe and the current national champion Achini Ratnasiri who has won the title for the past three years in a row. Also missing is top player Upuli Samanthika.
Jayasinghe’s absence has raised eye brows as she has entered both women’s doubles and mixed doubles but her entry for women’s singles has been rejected by the organisers as it had been late by about an hour, sources said.
A well known badminton analyst told “Daily Mirror” that the circumstances surrounding the rejection of Jayasinghe’s entry has led to many speculations.
“Jayasinghe represented Sri Lanka at Olympics clearly not because she was the best Sri Lankan player. There are so many other local players who were ranked ahead of her locally. It was only because she had played in the most number of overseas tournaments and had collected enough international ranking points. So, a player who sent her entry correctly for so many international events and so many local tournaments in the past couldn’t send her entry before the deadline for the nationals. Can you believe that? It is just an excuse to avoid being humiliated by other really good local girls. She’s just dodging competitions,” alleged the analyst.
SLBA failed to announce the nationals through media and as a result there is a drop of around 40 percent in entries for this year’s tournament, sources added. Most of the media and newspapers are still unaware that the Badminton Nationals would start tomorrow.
The poor planning and scheduling of the tournament also showed the incompetence of Badminton officials, sources pointed out.
The Junior National Championship ended less than two weeks ago, and some top junior players went for an Asian tournament in China last Friday and came back only yesterday while another junior team is to fly to Japan on October 25 for the World Junior Championships. Cramming the Nationals in between would obviously put the star junior players at a difficulty.  
(www.dailymirror.lk)

Sunday, August 5, 2012

ONLY NILUKA?



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Shuttler Niluka Karunaratne provided Sri Lanka some happy memories to take home after most of country’s athletes failed to go beyond the first round at the 2012 London Olympics. By Thursday four of the seven Sri Lankan athletes had completed their events and Niluka was the only player to have recorded a victory by that stage.

His giant-killing performance against world number eight was appreciated by a large gathering of British fans at Wembley Arena badminton courts on Monday. It was a historic moment for Sri Lanka’s badminton as it was the first time a Sri Lankan entered the pre quarter final stage in badminton at Olympics.

As he had predicted before his departure to Poland for pre Olympics training, Niluka managed to make his presence felt and proved that the money spent on his many international tours was not in vain.

"Badminton is not competitive in Sri Lanka. It is not popular like cricket. To come from such backgrounds and win, you need lot of exposure outside the country. I have gone the distance I can with what I got," a contented Karunaratne told journalists after making a respectful exit from Olympics.

He was eliminated in the pre quarterfinals by another high ranked player, Parupalli Kashyap of India. The match showcased that what mattered was experience at the highest level as Niluka struggled to beat his opponent in a mind game.

Niluka’s victory sent a strong message across to various benefactors of sports. Sports Ministry (more than ten million rupees) his sponsor Rohan de Silva and others invested heavily on Karunaratne and it helped the athlete reach the highest level without making just numbers.

Country’s sports need genuine benefactors who could provide its athletes what is needed to achieve success.

Niluka had the intent which some others lacked. By competing at international tournaments he not only improved his rankings but also gained valuable exposure. It is this exposure which is in short supply currently.

Niluka had an advantage which most of the other badminton players in Sri Lanka do not get. He had his father, a former badminton player and an administrator to motivate him. According to badminton analysts his father’s influence was vital for him to climb up the ranks and also to get very many international competition and training stints when he was an active member of the federation.

Niluka’s impressive performances came at a time when badminton authorities were struggling to save face. There were allegations that the authorities had been biased towards its women’s Olympian Thilini Jayasinghe. There were allegations that the lower ranked badminton player had been promoted over high ranked players to secure her Olympics spot, a charge denied by the Federation.

Niluka’s victory has helped the authorities save face but they have lost some respect due to allegations and before starting their next campaign to promote a player for Rio Olympics the badminton authorities will have to put serious thinking into winning the hearts of all badminton players.

Wednesday, July 11, 2012

Thilini makes Olympics for second time

Sri Lanka’s first ever women’s shuttler to take part in Olympics, Thilini Jayasinghe has made it a double when she qualified to play in the London Olympics which starts in another 16 days time.
Jayasinghe, the Kandyan lass who is currently in the 107th slot of the Badminton World Rankings, is in the 46th position when it comes to the Olympic rankings.
“I am really happy to hear the good news and being able to make it a double. I would like to thank Sports Minister Mahindananda Aluthgamage, Sri Lanka Badminton Association and my employer, Sampath Bank for all the support they have extended.
The other Sri Lankans who have qualified for the London Olympics are, Shuttler Niluka Karunaratne and Athlete Anuradha Indrajith Cooray.
US based Lankan athlete Christine Sonali Merrill, shooter Mangala Samarakoon, swimmers Heshan Unamboowe and Yashika Udugampola are the other Sri Lankans who will make their presence felt at the 2012 London Games.

Thursday, June 28, 2012

13 shuttlers leave for South Korea

Thirteen badminton players left Sri Lanka last night heading to Gimcheon, in South Korea for the Badminton Asia Youth Under 19 Championships 2012. The tournament is to begin on June 30 (Saturday) and will end on July 7.
On Tuesday evening the badminton players who were chosen to represent the country in the tournament were left confused as they were asked to participate in trials the day before their departure while, approval from the Ministry of Education had not been obtained.
However, it seems the matter has been sorted out, “We have got approval from the Ministry of Education and we will be getting approval from the Sports Ministry this evening,” Parakrama Basnayake, President of the SLBA said yesterday. He went on to state that seven girls and six boys will be representing Sri Lanka at the tournament. “The chances of Sri Lanka getting anywhere in the tour
nament are slim as they face the two best countries in the world, Korea and Thailand, in their group matches however, we do have a chance of beating Uzbekistan,” Basnayake stated.
(www.dailymirror.lk)

Sunday, May 13, 2012

The making of a champion

The making of a champion



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Niluka Karunaratne’s selection for the 2012 London Olympics has great significance because he has achieved this feat by getting rated within the top 50 singles players in the world.

Niluka has been the ‘king of badminton’ in Sri Lanka for a while. However, critics often posed the question whether the champ could reach international heights due to the lack of competition for him in Sri Lanka. After many attempts at qualifying for the Olympics, the 27-year-old finally made the grade this year thanks to a marathon run he had in contesting 13 international tournaments from which he emerged the victor on five occasions. Many, including some of his friends who are professional badminton players, opined that he’ll not make it to the 2012 Olympics. "Niluka never lost focus of his goal which was the Olympics," Louvie Karunaratne, his father, told Sunday Island Sportstar.

Louvie, Niluka’s mentor, who also plays a role in his son’s coaching, said that his son was confident of his Olympic berth many months ago even though the official announcement was made only last week. The World Badminton Federation ratings as at May 3 (the day the list of Olympians in badminton was made public) revealed that the Sri Lankan was rated 47th, the furthest a male badminton player from this island has progressed in world rankings.

Niluka’s plea is for the Sri Lanka Badminton Federation to provide him with more help and offer him the services of a foreign coach. He said he is playing his best badminton at the moment and added, "I have never felt so confident in my badminton career. I am training six hours a day like a professional. The big challenge now is to be in form because there is over two months more for the games," Niluka said.

His father said that the world hasn’t seen the best of Niluka as yet and that his son was expected to hit his peak before the Olympics.

According to Louvie, Niluka gets up at 4.30 am in the morning and has his first training session at the SLBA courts in Colombo. He has lunch at 1pm and is back again for more training at 4.pm. He returns home around 7.30 pm, arranges all what he needs the next day and says his prayers for the second time of the day before retiring to bed by 9pm. He expects silence to be maintained there onwards and all members of the family comply without a fuss because they all know it is a must to contribute towards a champion’s cause.

Louvie said that Niluka could have qualified for the Olympics in 2004, but lack of support prevented him from seeing his dream come true. In 2008 he was knocking on the door for an Olympic slot again, but Niluka contacted Chikungunya which forced him to shelf his ideas of making the Sri Lanka contingent for the Beijing Olympics in China. In his third attempt he succeeded, but that was a grueling task of working his way up in the rankings from 147 to 47. Some badminton experts in the world are still baffled how he did it! "He surely has to be one of the fastest to qualify for the Olympics because he did it in about five months" said Louvie.

Louvie, a former badminton player himself and an ex-SLBF official, said that if players with talent like Niluka are spotted and nurtured, the sport of badminton had the potential to produce champions and be more popular than cricket in this country. "We must acknowledge that it was after the 1996 cricket world cup victory that money started to come in to all sports in Sri Lanka. But if an analysis is made on the earnings of an international cricketer and a player who wins a couple of titles at the Badminton Super Series, the shuttler definitely makes a lot more money during a year," said Niluka’s father. Louvie said it was with great difficulty that he was funding Niluka’s needs in badminton. He was quick to mention the generous sponsorship that has been afforded to his son by Rohan de Silva of Mclarence Group of Companies.

Louvie said all that fame has not changed his son. "He will go out of his way to help people. At times he is so generous he’ll give whatever he has to others. When he goes to eat out he looks around if there is someone he knows whom he can buy meal. He is open to ideas and corrects himself. The only concern is that he has no life outside badminton, but then this is one of the demands when playing like a professional," his father said.

Niluka is at present training under the watchful eyes of a Malaysian coach at the SLBF courts in Colombo. ‘We can’t forget the inputs made to Niluka’s career by coaches like Pushpakumara, Pradeep Welagedara, Shrimal Aponsu and SLBF coach Dhanushka Fernando, " said Louvie.

Many Sri Lankans have been part of the island’s contingent during past Olympics. Some just made the numbers without proper training and for some the Games served them with vital experience. What are Niluka’s goals at the upcoming Olympics? "It is difficult to talk about goals right now because the draw for the Games is not out yet. But come what may, Niluka plans to give a good fight to whoever his opponent may be," said Louvie.

In 2003 Niluka was praised for performances against Chinese player Chen Jin (Present world ranking 4th) at the World Juniors, where he went down fighting in a three-setter. A leading badminton magazine paid a tribute to the Sri Lankan by referring him to uncut diamond’. That diamond has been cut and polished over the years and is ready for exhibition among other diamonds of the world.
(www.island.lk)

Sunday, May 6, 2012

A glimpse of hope for Thilini


Sri Lanka’s Top woman shuttler Thilini Jayasinghe, who competed at the Last Olympic Game in Beijing, has a glimpse of hope in making her way to the London Olympics this year. According to the selections, done by the world governing body for Badminton, she has been included in the stand bye list at third position.
Though the selections were made by the governing body, it is left for the respective governing bodies of participating countries to make the final decision on players representing the Olympic Games.
In the event of any three competitors failed to confirm their participation, it is the stand byes who fill these slots. It is left to be seen whether Thilini will stand a chance to present herself for a second time in Olympics.
Respective governing bodies have to confirm their athletics on or before May 10.

Niluka’s Olympic berth confirmed

Niluka’s Olympic 

berth confirmed

Sri Lanka’s Shuttle star Niluka Karunaratne’ participation at the forth coming London Olympic is confirmed by the Governing Body for the based in Malaysia. According to the ranking of the participants Niluka is placed in the 30th slot out of 38 in the men’s category thereby assuring him to compete in the Men’ Singles.
The Governing body has already finalized 172 men and women competitors for Singles, Doubles and Mixed Doubles events. These shyutlers are selected from 50 countries will represent their own country in respective categories. According to the world rankings conducted by the World Body Niluka who was earlier is in the 50th position now has come to the 47 position after he won five international tournaments in the recent past.
The only Badminton star from Sri Lanka battle in Olympics was Niroshan Wijekoon when he received a wild card for same. He is due to leave Spain to compete in an international championship and will move to Poland for a training stint before returning to the island.

 

Sunday, April 22, 2012

Niluka reaches 48th place in BWF rankings

Niluka reaches 48th place in  

BWF rankings

 
Sri Lanka's number one badminton player, Niluka Karaunaratne has climbed to the 48th position in World rankings. The latest rankings were issued on Thursday. Karunaratne, placed 26th slot among the 38 badminton players already qualified for London Olympics, skipped the recently held Asian championships in order to keep himself fit for the pinnacle event.
"In Sri Lanka, there's no one to give me a tough match. Because of that, I decided to play international tournaments and came this far. As I won in many tournaments, McLerances Limited helped me a lot" "I believe at-least now, the badminton officials in Sri Lanka would give me a proper recognition, putting aside their personnel agendas" Karunaratne said. Karunaratne is planning for three months intense training prior to London Olympics.
(www.dailymirror.lk)

Thursday, April 12, 2012

Thilini gets another opportunity in China

Thilini gets another opportunity in China 

Former national champion, Thilini Jayasinghe will have yet another opportunity to book her ticket to London Olympics, provided she appears in the major segment in the Asian Badminton Championships to be held in Shandong, China.
The tournament is to be held from 17 to 22 at Qingdao Sports Centre Conson Stadium, China.
Jayasinghe, currently ranked at 107th among world's women's badminton players, has 13,583 rating points. She is the highest ranked Sri Lankan women's player as veteran Chandrika de Silva at 141 and current national champion, Achini Ratnasiri at 155 in the world rankings.
Only 38 men and women players will be selected to the Olympic Games to be held in London and it's only Jayasinghe has more opportunity according to the current situation. However, the challenge remains as most of the top level badminton players coming from the South East Asian countries.
Defending national champion Niluka Karunaratne, who has already been selected to represent Sri Lanka in the London Olympics, too takes part in the Asian Championships. Karunaratne is currently ranked 49th among world badminton players.
(www.dailymirror.lk)