University of Moratuwa International Shuttlers Festival – 2011

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Category: badminton

Published on Thursday, 21 April 2011 12:20

Written by Mevan Peiris

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The University of Moratuwa is in the process of organizing its 5th annual Badminton tournament this year on a scale untouched by any other local university. ThePapare caught up with the current Badminton captain Nadika Jayasuriya, a former Royal College shuttler himself, who explained that the first tournament of this nature to be organized by the Moratuwa University was in 2007 where 4 local Universities participated and the University of Sri Jayewardenepura emerged champions.

 

Dates: May 4th – 13th

Venue: University of Moratuwa Sports Complex

 

In 2008 they organized two tournaments in the same year one of which was the inter university competition and another tournament which was open to any participant irrespective of representing a university or school. This was conducted under the categories of Men’s singles, Men’s doubles, Women’s singles, Women’s doubles and mixed doubles and also a special category titled ‘veterans’ for the over 35 age category.

The Moratuwa University managed to grab the championship that year.

In 2009 and 2010 they replaced the open tournament for a schools Badminton tournament and continued with the inter university competition as well which increased the number of participants greatly. They also included some of the private universities such as SLIT and APIIT and SLIIT managed to win the tournament in 2009.

This year too they have stuck with their habit of going one step further and included International Universities as well, for the Shuttlers Festival of 2011. The men’s team and the women’s team representing the Universiti Teknologi Mara of Malaysia as well as the men’s team of St. Martins College, India have confirmed their participation thus far as the International participants for this tournament. It should be mentioned that this is the first time that a local university is organizing an International Badminton tournament.

The local participants for this year are the State Universities of Moratuwa, Sri Jayewardenepura, Colombo, Kelaniya, Ruhuna, Peradeniya and the private universities SLIIT and SAITM. The Moratuwa University will also organize an individual tournament for the reserve players of each team in order that they also get a chance to directly participate in the event.

Skipper Nadika Jayasuriya goes on to comment that they attend almost 5 tours annually to International Universities for inter-University Badminton tournaments and decided that the ‘Moras’ should take the initiative to organize one at home this year.

The coach for team Moratuwa is Thilina Lalitharathna who was also the 2008 captain of the Moratuwa University Badminton team. The vice captain for the men’s team this year will be Chamika Nanayakkara while Malshini Mallikaarachchi and Savini Madurasingha will be the captain and vice captain of the women’s team respectively.

 

 

The schedule for the tournament is as follows:

May 4th              : Opening Ceremony.

May 4th – 10th   : Schools Tournament.

May 10th          : Arrival of foreign teams.

May 11th     : Flag hoisting ceremony and the start of the Inter University International Tournament.

May 13th          : Finals of all categories and closing ceremony.

 

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