Sri Lanka’s Ace Shuttler Ranithma clinches silver in Wales

Sri Lanka’s top seed women’s shuttler, Ranithma Liyanage won a silver medal in the Wales International Open Badminton Championships played at Sport Wales National Centre in Sophia Gardens, Cardiff, Wales during the last weekend. The 18-year-old girl, Liyanage, who holds the current National Women’s Championship title, is ranked at the 5th (Youth) and 113th (Open Singles) place in the World Badminton Federation’s latest rankings.

During the Final, Sri Lankan Badminton prodigy Liyanage fought against Chinese-born Austrian Xu Wei, who possesses vast experience on the global stage. However, Liyanage got a fine start and led the first set, demonstrating good fighting spirit. Eventually, this excellent youth talent went on to win the set with 21 – 16 points without much challenge.

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However, during the round, the Austrian came back strong with highly tactical and technical play to win the set 21 – 10. Hence, the 3rd set was crucial as both shuttlers fought tooth and nail to clinch the coveted championship. After some thrilling action, the set went to a nail-biting finish and unluckily the Austrian shuttler managed to edge out Liyanage with a slender margin as 21 – 19. Therefore, the Sri Lankan lass missed out on a rare chance of clinching a gold at one of the oldest international Badminton championships, which dated back to 1928.

In the round of 32, Liyanage eased past Slovakia’s N. Slobodova (as 02 – 00, with 21 – 08 and 21 – 11 points), while she overcame a tough challenge against W. Wang of Sweden at the Quarter Final (as 02 – 01, with 21 – 23, 21 – 13 and 21 – 19 points). In the Women’s Singles Quarter Finals, Liyanage continued her impressive run, overpowering England opponent Freya Redfearn with hard fought consecutive victories (as 02 – 00, with 24 – 22 and 21 – 15 points).

In the Semi Final, Liyanage successfully faced the challenge from another experienced Denmark shuttler, Athene Thornuld. There, the Sri Lankan shuttler secured at least a silver medal with two straight victories. During the first set, she took control of the game and won it by 21 – 17 and continued her dominance in the second set with a 21 – 15 victory.

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A few weeks back, this rising talent achieved another milestone in her career by reaching the Quarter Final stage at the BWF World Junior Badminton Championships, held in Guwahati, India. There she got a promising start and found her good rhythm but had to be eliminated after losing to talented Chinese shuttler Liu Si Ya.

A couple of months ago, Liyanage featured at the Scottish Open Badminton Championship played at Emirates Arena in Dalmarnock, Glasgow, Scotland. However, Sri Lanka’s top-seeded shuttler couldn’t enter the Quarter Final as she was defeated by Kirsty Gilmour of Scotland after having an impressive run in the preliminary rounds.

Ranithma was born in the Southern Province, which is a cradle to many talented shuttlers, and she is a proud product of Christ Church Girls School in Baddegama. She started her Badminton career by playing against her brothers at home. During her early career, her teachers identified her inborn talent and directed her to Coach Pavithra Abegunasiriwardena, with whom she trained for several years. Later, she got an opportunity to train under the watchful eyes of Coach Subash Janaka, who took care of the national pool players in the Southern Province. With her remarkable performance and unwavering commitment, Liyanage managed to break into the top 10 of the island and got an opportunity to represent the national pool.

At present, this top-notch local talent is chasing for a spot in the Los Angeles Olympics in 2028. Tournaments like these will provide her good exposure to the global stage, and this victory will earn her valuable points which will be a catalyst to the Olympic dream of the nation. The veteran shuttler, Thilini Jayasinghe, is the only woman to have competed in two consecutive Olympics (in 2008 and 2012), while Men’s shuttlers Niroshan Wijekoon (in 1992), Niluka Karunaratne (in 2012, 2016 and 2020), and 22-year-old Viren Nettasinghe (in 2024) have also represented Sri Lanka at the Summer Olympics.