Indika Prasad, Lanka’s sole Gold medallist
Sri Lanka’s Indika Prasad Silva displaying exceptional skills defeated India’s high riding Vikas Mahajan in the Men’s Over-40 Singles to clinch Gold at the South Asian Open Veterans’ Table Tennis (TT) Championship 2017, concluded at the S.Thomas’ College Indoor Stadium last weekend.
Sri Lanka won 1 Gold, 6 Silver and 23 Bronze at this highly competitive tournament which had teams from India, Pakistan, Maldives and Nepal, with by 230 players. India won the Overall Championship.
In the Singles, apart from Silva, Udayangani Aluvihare, Namal Gunasekera and Ama Suraweera won Bronze in the Women’s Over-40, -50 and -65 events respectively.
Indika Prasad Silva partnered Dimuthu Prasanna to overcome India’s Rajesh Singh-Kiran Salian combination to secure Silver in the Over-40 Men’s Doubles, while evergreen Dr Nimal Lucas and Mohamed Laffeer won Bronze in the Men’s Over-65 Doubles, along with Premanjini Perera-Kusum Nilanthi and Nilmini Wijetunga-Tamara Hewage winning Bronze in the Women’s Over-40 and Over-50 Doubles respectively.
In the Team events, Sri Lanka ‘A’ comprising W.A. Buddhasiri, Lalith Priyantha, Dietmar Doering and Gamini Moraes went down fighting to India in the Over-50 Men’s final, and settle for Silver. Bronze medals were won by Sri Lanka Navy (Men’s Over-40), Tibar Sports Club of Sri Lanka (Women’s Over-40), Sri Lanka Veterans ‘D’ (Women’s Over-50) and Sri Lanka Veterans ‘A’ (Men’s Over-65).