Udaya and Ishara — the top rankers
Ishara Madurangi
Udaya Ranasinghe and Ishara Madurangi were ranked No. One in the Men’s and Women’s national rankings of the Table Tennis Association of Sri Lanka. In this rankings for 2016, Vidyartha schoolboy Ranasinghe proved his prowess in standing ahead of paddlers from the three forces, MAS and Stag TT players. In the Women’s segment rankings though Madurangi is ranked No. One but the remaining nine positions were occupied by school girls. Apart from Ranasinghe four more schoolboys were ranked within the first ten for Men and eleven school girls including three girls for the 9th position were ranked in Women’s segment.
The performances of these school girls and boys signal that in the near future Sri Lanka table tennis will be heading for a bright future. All these top ranked players have vast experience in representing the country in international level and have done exceptionally well. They took part in the recently concluded South Asian championship, the Asian championship and the Commonwealth Games. Sri Lanka captain Rohan Sirisena along with national player Nirmala Jayasinghe occupy the second and third place respectively in the men’s while in the Women’s school girls Erandi Warusawithana of Dharmasoka Ambalangoda and Visakian Nuwani Vithanage are ranked second and third.
Udaya Ranasinghe
Men’s first ten ranked players:
(1) Udaya Ranasinghe (Vidyartha College – 74.31), (2) Rohan Sirisena (Stag Academy – 48.03), (3) Nirmala Jayasinghe (MAS – 41.06), (4) Chameera Ginige (Commercial Credit – 39.24), (5) Milinda Lakshitha (Air Force – 30.45), (6) Dinesh Deshapriya (Navy – 28.93), (7) Prasad Silva (Vidyartha College – 26.96), (8) Sajith Kavinda (Army – 26.96), (9) K.S.T. Chalitha (Seylan Bank – 25.22), (10) Dishanka Tennekoon (Dharmaraja College, Kandy – 23.25)/Malith Dilusha (Devananda Ambalangoda – 15.22) Imantha Udayanga (Air Force – 13.33)
Women’s first ten ranked players:
(1) Ishara Madurangi (Stag Academy – 72.42), (2) Erandi Warusawithana (Dharmasoka Ambalangoda – 44.84), (3) Nuwani Vithanage (Visakha Vidyalaya, Colombo – 36.59), (4) Hansani Piumila (Visakha Vidyalaya, Colombo – 34.77), (5) Chamathsara Fernando (Visakha Vidyalaya, Colombo – 29.69), (6) Ridmi Karadanarachchi (Mahamaya Vidyalaya, Kandy – 28.86), (7) Muthumali Priyadharshani (Devananda Vidyalaya, Ambalangoda 27.04), (8) Buddini Rajaguru (Maliyadeva BV Kurunegala – 22.12), (9) Ochini Dissanayake (Mahanama Vidyalaya – 20.3), (10) Thanushi Rodrigo (Mahamaya College, Kandy – 17.87), Ruwini Kannangara (Musaeaus College, Colombo – 17.5) Imasha de Silva (Dharmasoka College, Ambalangoda – 17.12)