Thilini leads Sri Lanka for World Cíships
The new look Sri Lanka badminton team will be looking to gain a much
needed promotion into the next level when they compete in the Sudhirman
Cup International World Mixed team championships which will be worked
off from April 10 to 17 in China.
The four member Sri Lanka team will be spearheaded by the experienced
Thilini Jayasinghe who represented the country at the previous Olympic
Games in China. She will be joined by another talented player Achini
Nimeshika Ratnasiri and the two menís players Rajitha Dahanayake and
Sri Lanka will compete in Group Four ĎBí in this tournament along
with Lithuania, Mongolia, Portugal and Iceland. The two top teams from
this group will qualify to play in the semifinals.
There will be five main events in this tournament including the
womenís singles, womenís doubles, menís singles, menís doubles and the
Thilini Jayasinghe who is the only international experienced player
in this squad believed that Sri Lanka has a very good chance of winning
a medal despite the presence of two new players in the menís team.
In fact Jayasinghe played a dominant role in the 2005 tournament and
helped Sri Lanka to emerge champions of Group Five that led them to a
promotion into the Group Four.
Jayasinghe stated that all top World badminton players will be vying
for honours in this event and Sri Lanka are determined to make their
presence felt despite the limited amount of preparations.
Jayasinghe noted that Sri Lanka is currently ranked 36th in the World
rankings and should be able to reach the 30th position if all the
players perform to their true potential. Jayasinghe and fifteen year old
Ratnasiri are of course fresh after their recent participation in the
Asian Confederation individual championships held in Korea.
The two newcomers are Rajitha Dahanayake from Dharmaraja College
Kandy and 24 year old Hasitha Chanaka a former player of Dharmasoka
College Ambalangoda. In fact Dahanayake is the number one ranked player
in the menís doubles and mixed double and had the satisfaction of
winning a silver medal at the 2006 South Asian Games.
Dahanayake also had the credit of leading his country for the World
junior championships in Malaysia and for the Asian junior and senior