Sri Lanka badminton officials are holding discussions with the Asian Badminton Association to host the Asian Junior Championships in October for the first time in history.
Sri Lanka Badminton Interim Committee president Nishantha Jayasinghe said the discussions were highly successful and both parties have already agreed to conduct this junior tournament in Colombo.
The Sri Lankan badminton chief further said that at his request two Asian officials, Chief Operating Officer Kenny Goh Chee Keong and Senior Event Manager Chooi Weng Sheng had visited the island to inspect the arrangements being made to host the event.
“The meeting was highly successful and we could be hosting the event from October 1 to 5,” said Jayasinghe. “World badminton today is dominated by the Asian countries and this is going to be a good opportunity for Sri Lankan youngsters to get more international exposure.” They also inspected the courts at the Sugathadasa Stadium and its facilities as well as hotel accommodation for players and officials. The tournament will be open for under-15 and under-17 age group players.
“This age group is very important. If we will give a good exposure for the juniors we can easily build up our future in badminton.
Badminton is a very famous racquet sport in Sri Lanka and we have already produced Olympians in this sport,” said Jayasinghe. Sachin Dias and Buwaneka Gunatilleka entered the semi finals at the Commonwealth Games and narrowly missed winning a first ever Commonwealth Games medal for Sri Lanka.
Jayasinghe said it was important that Sri Lanka has a good infrastructure from the junior level and already a junior pool has been formed alongside the seniors under the guidance of junior coach Manjula Fernando and national coach Tony Wahyudi who is from Indonesia.