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Ariyadasa Silva
Memorial Shuttle Championship Tilini Jayasinghe of Mahamaya BMV, Kandy and Niluka Karunaratne of Dharmasoka, Ambalangoda emerged girls and boys under 14 Champions in the 15th Ariyadasa Silva Memorial Badminton Championship at S. Thomas’ Gymnasium, Mount Lavinia yesterday. Tilini Jayasinghe made a three setter game to defeat colleague Kanchana Gonawala. Jayasinghe won the first set 11-2 but Gonawala made a 11-8 game to win the second set. However Jayasinghe fought back strongly to win the final game 13-10. Niluka Karunaratne made a straight sets 15-7, 15-6 victory to beat Suresh de Silva from Dharmasoka to take the boys under 14 title for the second consecutive year. Meanwhile two Indians Subash Saxsena and Srikanth Bakshi, taking part as special invitees entered the mens open finals. Saxsena defeated top seed Thushara Edirisinghe (National Champion) in a three setter game in the semi finals. First set Edirisinghe won 15-12. However Saxsena controlled the next two winning them 15-8, 15-6, to enter the final. The other semi final saw Indian Srikanth Bakshi beating number two seed Subash Janaka in straight sets 15-11, 15-6. However in the finals, Bakshi is tipped to receive a walk over from his partner Saxsena, who is not fit for the final game today. Meanwhile the third seed U. D. R. P. Kumara was the only shuttler to make a tough game against Indian Srikanth Bakshi in the mens quarter finals. Bakshi won the game but Kumara made a good fight with three sets (12-15, 15-13, 15-13.) In the Womens open final Chandrika de Silva the top seed player will meet bottom seed Dilhani de Silva. Chandrika beat Tharaka Abeywickrama 11-4, 11-3 while Dilhani defeated Pameesha Dishanthi 13-10, 11-3 to enter the final. Commercial Bank sponsored this tournament and Amitha Gunaratne the Managing Director will be the Chief guest and Mrs. Ariyadasa de Silva will be the guest of honour. Results: Subash Sexsena bt Thushara Edirisinghe 12-15, 15-8, 15-6, Srikanth Bakshi bt Subash Janaka 15-11, 15-6, Womens Semi Final Girls under 14 final Boys under 14 final Mother and daughter win at
Carrom Past and present slicing queens, mother and daughter combination Kamala and Amitha Wickremasinghe (Carromites) displayed their superiority when they annexed the Women’s Doubles Championship at the 32nd Carrom National beating Clarista Peter and Premila Botejue in straight sets at 25/9 and 25/2. Chamil Cooray of St. John’s College Nugegoda (son of another former slicing queen Pradeepa Wickremasinghe) annexed the Sub-Junior title beating school-mate Kasun Madurajith in straight sets 25/16 and 25/18. In the Veterans’ Singles W. Rajudeen, (Carromites) annexed the title beating D. W. Dissanayake in the best of three sets at 25/15, 8/25 and 25/7. RESULTS: Women’s Doubles Semi-finals: Clarista Peter/Premila Botejue bt Rohini Mathiasz/Leela de Silva 24/18, 5/21 & 25/24. Kamala/Amitha Wickremasinghe bt Anoma Dias/Inoka Perera 25/0 & 25/0. FINAL: Kamala/Amitha Wickremasinghe bt Clarista Peter/Premila Botejue 25/9 & 25/2. SUB-JUNIOR Semi-Finals: Chamil Cooray bt R. Umayanga 25/26; K. Madurajith bt. K. Chaturanga 25/17. FINAL: Chamil Cooray bt Kasun Madurajith 25/16 & 25/18 VETERAN’S SINGLES: Final — W. Rajudeen bt D. W. Dissanayake 25/15, 3/25 and 25/7. The 40th Annual Athletic meet of Ceylonese Track & Field Club conducted in association with Lion’s Club International Districts 306 A , B and C, will be held on 5 and 6 December at the — Sugathadasa Outdoor Stadium Age Groups and Events are as follows. Men Open — 100, 200, 400, 800, 1500, 5000, 10,000 Meters, 110M Hurdles, 400M Hurdles, Long Jump, High Jump, Triple Jump, Pole Vault, Shot Putt, Discuss, Javelin. Men under 20 — 100, 200, 400, 800, 1500, 5000, Meters, 110M Hurdles, 400M Hurdles, Long Jump, High Jump, Triple Jump, Pole Vault, Shot Putt, Discuss, Javelin. Women Open — 100, 200, 400, 800, 1500, 5000 Meters, 100M Hurdles, 400M Hurdles, Long Jump, High Jump, Triple Jump, Shot Putt, Discuss, Javelin. Women under 20 — 100, 200, 400, 800, 1500, 3000, 10,000 Meters, 100M Hurdles, Long Jump, High Jump, Shot Putt, Discuss, Javelin. Mens and Womens under 18, 16 and 14 events too will be held. All competitors should be within their respective age group as at 31st December 1998. Entries close on 30th November 1998 with Gamini De Silva Sports Officer, Mahaweli Economic Agency, 3rd Floor, 500, T. B. Jayah Mw., Colombo 10. Cambrians
win Prince of Wales College registered their third win for the season when they defeated Sri Jayawardenapura MV Kotte by an Innings and 93 runs which concluded at Moratuwa. The architect of the game was Rashan Peiris who hammered 14 boundaries and four sixes in his Century (147) partnerships. One for the 2nd wicket of 122 runs with Pubudu Ranaweera (70) and a 101 runs for the 6th wicket with Kalpa Fernando (26) making a total of 301/7 declared in their 1st innings. For the Kotte side C. Lakmal to 3/45. Sri Jayawardenapura Kotte were bundled out for 118 runs in the first innings with Pubudu Ranaweera capturing 4/22 while Hasantha Fernando and Janaka Gunaratne shared two wickets each. Asked to follow on the Kotte side was skittled out for 90 runs. CHIEF SCORES: Prince of Wales College 1st Innings 301/7 Dec. in 61 overs (Rashan Peiris 147, Pubudu Ranaweera 70, Kalpa Fernando 26, C. Lakmal 3/45.) Sri Jayawardenapura Kotte 1st innings 118 and 2nd innings 90. J. Gunarante 3/16, Hasantha Fernando 3/15 and Pubudu Ranaweera 2/12) Tri-Star netball in progress The inaugural Inter Factory Netball Championship of the Tri-Star Sports Club (TSSC) is now in progress in two stages. The first phase was on a district basis on a league style. The winners and runners-up of each district will be picked for the grand final round scheduled to be held on December 20 at Reid Avenue. A press conference in this regard was held last week and Chairman, TSSC, Kumar Devapura said that this tournament is being conducted at a time when their institution is facing tremendous financial difficulties. "We have 32 factories which employ nearly 30,000 employees and due to the quota allocation malpractices we are facing certain closure," he said. Vice President TSSC Dileepa Weerasinghe said that since TSSC chairman is a former cricketer, they decided to conduct a sports event. "We will follow this with a mini Sports Festival" he assured. It was also disclosed that the TSSC has excelled in the Mercantile Rugby Sevens, Netball, Soccer and Athletics events. The following awards will be given
away at the finals:- Participating Teams are. Gampaha District Galle District Kurunegala District Kandy District Have Your Say One of the main objectives of the SLTA is to conduct tournaments throughout the country, and not only in Colombo. This would encourage tennis in the outstations. But the SLTA has failed miserably in this. The annual ranking tournaments that the tennis clubs in places like Galle, Matara, Negombo, Badulla, Moratuwa, Panadura, Kurunegala and Kandy have not been held for several years. It is little wonder, therefore, that tennis has not produced a Sanath Jayasuriya and Sriyani Kulawansa who came from the outstations. Interest in a sport is generated when young children (and their parents) watch top players in action in their towns. The SLTA should be working hard to develop the coaching programmes of the clubs in the outstations. But they are too busy running a major coaching scheme at the SLTA headquarters in Colombo. The question must be asked whether it is the function of the SLTA to coach beginners and intermediate players. This would be more appropriately the task of individual clubs and coaches. The SLTA can support them, but the SLTA itself should not be doing the coaching of all grades of players, including raw beginners. The SLTA should restrict itself to the highest level players. It should find ways and means of subsidising clubs and coaches to take on the beginners and intermediate players. Poor Quality Almost all the best players in the squads go outside the SLTA-appointed coaches to private coaches. This is clear evidence that they believe that the SLTA coaches are not the best. Top coaches have not joined the SLTA’s coaching scheme for a variety of reasons, including victimisation. Profit Through Coaching The SLTA boasts that they train 300 to 400 pupils. This is a monthly income of over Rs. 300,000. But a national association should be training its players free of charge or at subsidised rates, and finding sponsors to make this possible. Inefficient use If the players are to play singles among each other, they will each be able to play no more than 1 to 1 1/2 hours per week. But players of that age should be playing singles at least 1 1/2 hours per day. What is obvious is that if better court allocation is made, this crowded situation need not arise at all. This is because most of the courts can be seen to be empty or underutilised. The scheduled start of play is 3 p.m. but pupils come to the courts only by about 3:30 to 4 p.m. Often tennis ends at 5:30 p.m. although daylight prevails upto about 6:30 to 7 p.m. This means that the courts are 50 percent underutilised. From a lover of Tennis. |
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