Sachin de Silva regains national junior golf title

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By Naushad Amit ;�Pix by Amila Gamage

Sachin de silva

In the absence of defending champion Kyle de Silva, his cousin, Sachin de Silva of British School in Colombo, won the Sri Lanka Junior Golf Championship for the second time, at the Royal Colombo Golf Club in Colombo last week.

Sachin, who emerged last year’s runner-up, displayed fine form over all three days to comfortably win the championship with scores of 78, 73 and 82, in the respective rounds to finish with a total aggregate gross score of 233, while claiming victory by 11 shots.

Among others who shone from a field of nearly 100 young golfers were Prashan Peiris and Nigel Fernando, who won the Silver and Bronze divisions respectively. Prashan, of St. Thomas’ Prep, played some brilliant golf to score 76, 77 and 72 on respective days to win the Silver Division title. US-based Nigel, who won the Bronze Division, made 45 and 47, the best on pars on both days as he sparkled all the way, playing consistent golf over two rounds to finish with a total score of 92.

In the main championship, besides Sachin’s fine performance, there was a tight contest for the runner-up position on the final day of play between Zaffar Sikkandar and lesser-known Chalitha Pushpika. However, Pushpika won the battle to emerge runner-up of the championship by five shots.

Sachin also won his age group category, the Gold Division, with Pushpika finishing runner-up with a total score of 244. Second runner-up, R.L. Illeirajah, grossed 270 while Shamani Jagoda, the only female golfer to finish among the top five in the tournament, secured fourth position fourth.

In the Silver Division, next to Prashan was Ishira Fernando, who made 83, 83 and 82 in respective rounds to finish runner-up. G. Dhanaranjan from Kandy finished third with a total score of 281, and Armand Flamer Caldera, who notched up a score of 289, came in fourth.

Following Nigel in the Bronze Division were C.D.M. Hirushan, who finished second with a total score of 98, and Kiran Muthukrishna and Arvind Hidramani both of whom finished third with identical aggregate scores of 106.

The tournament, which was played in four categories, was open to both boys and girls under 18 years. The competition, according to organizers Sri Lanka Golf Union (SLGU), has been the breeding grounds of future golfers for Sri Lanka since its inception in 1975. The tournament was sponsored by the Prima Group for the fifth consecutive year.