A team of junior badminton players from Sri Lanka returned to the country winning as many as nine gold medals and six silver medals at the South Asia Regional Junior Badminton Championship 2024 held in Islamabad, Pakistan.
The budding boys and girls who are obviously the future of Sri Lanka badminton along with many others who could not make it have not just won gold and silver have come through with a telling message that with the right commitment and encouragement they can go places and fly the flag much higher.
They even had to play against one another in some of the finals as they completely outplayed the opposition from Pakistan, Nepal and the Maldives in the run-up games.
The Sri Lankan juniors reached all ten finals in the Under-15 and 17 categories and won nine losing only to Pakistan in the boys Under-17 Men’s doubles with Thejana Herath and Mihila Jayaweera having to settle for the Silver 2-1.
The Sri Lankan kids won gold medals in the Under-17 Men’s Singles, Women’s Singles, Doubles in Mixed and Women’s in a stunning show of their promising potential for the future if nurtured properly.
In the Under-15 category the Sri Lankan made a complete domination winning gold in the Men’s and Women’s Singles and the Doubles in Men’s, Women’s and Mixed categories.
In the Under-17 Men’s Singles final Thejana Herath won the gold by beating his Doubles partner Mihila Jayaweera 2-1.
Nethmi Ratnayake won the gold medal with a straight win in the Under-17 Women’s Singles final against Luckshana Kumar.
But Ratnayake and Kumar beat the Pakistani pair of Roshany Ihsan and Samha Naveed to win the gold medal in the Under-17 Women’s Doubles.
Mihila Jayaweera and Ratnayake later teamed up to beat Thejana Herath and Luckshana Kumar in the Under-17 Mixed Doubles to win the gold medal.
Amavan Amarasinghe recorded a straight win against Pakistan player Abdul Haseeb in the Under-15 Men’s Singles to claim the gold medal while Benuri Vidyathilaka bagged the gold medal in the Under-15 Women’s Singles final against Thenuki de Silva.
Amavan Amarasinghe and Chenal Madapathage beat the Pakistan pair of Shahzain Malik and Muhammad Reyan to win the Under-15 Men’s Doubles gold while Thenuki de Silva and Benuri Vidyathilaka grabbed the gold medal in the Under-15 Women’s Doubles after a straight win against Pakistan opponents.
Amavan Amarasinghe was the pick of the Sri Lankans as he finished with a haul of three gold medals as he teamed up with Thenuki de Silva to win the Under-15 Mixed Doubles, defeating Chenal Madapathage and Benuri Vidyathilaka 2-1 in the final.
