The paddlers of Southern Province emerged victorious at the concluded National Sports Festival Table Tennis Championship that was held at the S. Thomas’ College Mount Lavinia Indoor Sports Complex over the past three days.
The National Sports Festival, organised by the Ministry of Sports, took place concurrently around the suburbs of the capital city featuring over 15 sports. The table tennis fixture of the sports festival commenced on the 5th of September and concluded yesterday (7th). The championship was drafted in a team competition format with each province having a representation of their best players competing to take their respective teams to victory.
Western Province who secured a total of 1 Gold, 4 Silvers and 1 Bronze could not take the top spot as Southern Province who earned 3 Golds, 1 Silver and 3 Bronze medals got the overall championship title. The team encounters were dominated by the Central Province teams but they could not finish in the the top two positions. Central Province finished third while the fourth and positions were taken by North Western and Sabaragamuwa provinces respectively.
Champion Paddler and national talent Imesh Udaya Ranasinghe of Vidyartha College teamed up with J. N. Jayasinghe to win the Men’s Doubles title for Central Province. The Central Province duo defeated K. T. Ranjana and Dilusha Silva 3-0 in the finals.
In the Men’s team event, it was once again the Udaya Ranasinghe led Central Province team that emerged victorious against Western Province but the Western Province lady paddlers Hansani Piumila and C. Fernando took the honours of winning the Women’s team event. The women’s Singles title of 2016 went to Ishara Madurangi of the Southern Province who defeated Shehsala Bandara of Sabaragamuwa.
Chameera Ginige of the Southern Province teamed up to win the Mixed Doubles along with Ishara Madurangi against Hansani Piumila and R. Sirisena of the Western Province.
