Royalist Anas Ahmed dethrones the king but misses the crown
The biggest upset in carrom took place on Sunday at the 12th Ranger’s Open Ranking Carrom Tournament 2014 when Sri Lankas No. 1 and 
National Champion of this year Chamil Cooray was dethroned by Anas Ahamed, a schoolboy from Royal College, Colombo in the Men’s semi-finals of the Men’s Singles at the Carrom Federation Headquarters, Maharagama.
After many years of excellent carrom and reaching finals in all tournaments, with this defeat Chamil moved into the 3rd position of the rankings. This year’s tournament came to an end when experienced Nishantha Fernando and Joseph Roshita winning the Men’s and Women’s Singles respectively.
In the first Men’s singles semi-finals between Ahamed and Cooray the first game was won by Chamil Cooray with ease 25/10 but the Royalist came back very strongly back into the game and didn’t give any chances to the national champion as he missed some vital shots and in the second and third games Anas sliced his way skillfully to over come the opponent winning 25/20 and 25/14 to enter the finals. In the other semi-final Nishantha Fernando scored a cake-walk victory over M.T.M. Hilmy with 25/0 and 25/4 win to make his way to the finals.
Schoolboy Anas Ahamed meeting the experienced Nishantha Fernando in the finals won the first game in a close fight 25/24 but Fernando making use of his experience and tactics had the schoolboy completely disturbed and won the second and the third set without a fight 25/12 and 25/00 to climb into the top ranking position.
In the finals of the Women’s singles Sri Lanka player Joseph Roshita found things easy, to beat Chalani L. Liyanage 25/13 and 25/9 to occupy the top ranking position.
Men’s Singles semi-finals: (1) Anas Ahamed beat Chamil Cooray 10/25, 25/20. 25/14, (2) W.W.D. Nishantha Fernando beat M.T.M. Hilmy 25/00, 25/4
Finals: Nishantha Fernando beat Anas Ahamed 24/25, 25/12, 25/00
Women’s Singles Final: Joseph Roshita beat Chalani L. Liyanage 25/13 and 25/9
The last event in this year’s carrom calendar will be the ‘Prize Money Carrom Tournament’ which will only be held on one day where men and women participate together. Entries will be closed on December10, 2014 with the draw to be taken place on December 12 and the tournament will be worked off at the Carrom Federation H.Q., Maharagama on December 20.
The New Year 2015 will begin with the 47th Nationals Carrom Championship. Entries will be received upto December 23 and the draw will be held on December 27, 2014. The championship is scheduled to start on January 17, 2015.