The Sri Lanka Junior and Cadet table tennis teams returned from Myanmar on 19th August after a well performed Asian Junior and Cadet Table Tennis Championship 2018.
The championship was held from 13th to 18th August in Wunna Theikdi Indoor Stadium, Nay Pyi Taw, Myanmar with the participation of all regional qualified Asian giants. The Asian continent is divided into five regions by the Asian Table Tennis Union namely East Asia, West Asia, Middle Asia, South East Asia and South Asia and held the preliminary qualification tournaments.
Sri Lanka qualified for the Asian championship in the South Asian Regional Championship which was held in April this year in Maldives. From the region, only Sri Lanka and India managed to qualify for the Asian championship after a tough battle with other regional teams. Sri Lanka teams managed to secure 6 silver medals and 6 bronze medals in the regional qualifications thereby securing the second place in the region.
Under 18 and 15 Team and Singles, Under 18 Doubles and Under 18 Mixed Doubles events were carried out in the tournament during the six days. Royalist Nimesh Ranchagoda and Visakhian Hansani Piyumila captained the Sri Lanka Junior table tennis teams while Hiruna Warusawithana of Darmashoka College and Jithara Warnakulasuriya of Ladies’ Collage gave leadership to the Cadet teams. Mr. Rahal Abeyratne and Ms. Dilima Udagedara functioned as the manager and the lady chaperon for the team respectively.
Unfortunately, there was no coach in the 15 member contingent due to financial constraints. The Sports ministry has provided 13 air tickets for the players but not to the officials and coaches. The table tennis association and the manager personally have raised the funds to cover the air fare and lodging expenses of the 2 officials.
Despite the lack of a coach in the team, Sri Lankan players have shown great courage and achieved good progressive results. The highlights of the results were the Sri Lankan captain pair Nimesh Ranchagoda and Hansani Kapugeekiyana managing to enter the quarter finals of the mixed doubles event by beating Kazakhstan and Indian mixed doubles pairs in a very competitive finish.
The Indian duo won the first two sets comprehensively but the Sri Lankans were well up to the task and came back strongly with a superb finish by gaining the victory in the rest of the three sets. The scores were 4/11, 7/11, 11/6, 13/11, 11/9.
Then they met the world junior circuit mixed doubles champions Li Shin Yang and Cheng Tin Tin from Chinese Taipei. First set was won by the Taipei pair with ease but despite the fact of being the under dogs, the second set was dominated by the Sri Lankan pair who managed to claim the victory. In the third and fourth sets the Sri Lankan pair was leading the sets with 8/6 and 5/2 with a heavy shock to the Taipei team but, eventually ended up the sets with 3/11, 11/7, 11/13 and 9/11. The commentators heavily praised the Sri Lankan achievement in the live telecast with remarks that Sri Lanka is not heard of in the arena and also commended on the technique and talents of the players. The Sri Lankan experts who have watched the live telecast of the match advocated that if there was a coach on site the match could have won with ease earning a much wanted Bronze medal in the Asian Junior Table Tennis Championship after 11 years of drought. The last Bronze medal was won for Sri Lanka by Ishara Madurangi in the Cadet Girls category in year 2007.
The other performance which can be highlighted as a remarkable achievement is the match of Hiruna Warusawithana of Cadet Boys’ against the Shinozuka Hiroto of Japan in the group 12. Hiruna managed to outperform the Japan player with a stunning win. The match scores are 12/10, 11/9, 8/11, 1/11, 11/9. Hiruna showed brilliant results in his singles by challenging the world ranked players of Hong Kong, Chinese Taipei and Japan in the toughest group.
Also the performances of Hansani Kapugeekiyana and Jithara Warnakulasuriya were admirable as they gave a tough fight to the top seeded Chinese and Korean players and lost the matches in nail biting finishes 2-3 in each case. The results show that Sri Lanka is not that far in the junior arena of the sport but we have to nurture them with the necessary infrastructure for development. Also Chandupa Alahakoon, Isuru Anjana, Senura Silva, Sanaya Buddhadasa and Ayla Chitty showed a good sign of progress by winning some matches in the tournament.
Altogether it was super performance by the Sri Lankan Juniors under the given circumstances, there is very good hope for a brighter future if the authorities provide the youngsters with the necessary resources required.
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