The making of a champion
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)
