Sriyani Deepika wins Shuttle Gold in Las Vegas
Sriyani Deepika proudly displays the Gold medal she won at theLas Vegas World Chinese Invitational Badminton Tournament
Dubai, United Arab Emirates: Former Sri Lanka Badminton champion Sriyani Deepika hopes to inspire UAE-based players to aim for glory, after winning Gold in the Women’s Singles Seniors 50+ Division at the Las Vegas World Chinese Invitational Badminton Tournament held from July 20-22.
Organised by the World Chinese Badminton Federation – United States Branch, under the aegis of USA Badminton, Sriyani displayed great skill and stamina to defeat veteran Chinese players in the Singles, in addition to bagging a Bronze in the 50+ Mixed Doubles event, partnering Sri Lankan Anura Krishantha.
“It was a dream come true and a result of my hard work and dedication to the sport which I have been playing since the age of 12,” said an elated Sriyani, shrugging off jet lag on her return to the UAE on Thursday morning.
Sriyani Deepika showed great reserves of stamina for a 51-year-old mother of 2 teenagers, battling tenaciously for more than 3 hours on court on the Day 1 of the competition which attracted Shuttlers from 19 countries.
She won all her 3 Round Robin matches to emerge champion, defeating Lili Cai 31-17, Liz hen Xu 31-13 and Rungrong Zeng 31-30 in the 50+ Women’s Singles event. Partnering Krishantha, she overcame the pairing of John Wu and Xia Min Tang 31-28, Yong Li and Huang 31-17 and Andre Kristian and Jen Huang 31-30 in the 50+ Mixed Doubles preliminary round. But she had to be content with Bronze in the Mixed Doubles, after having lost to the Chinese pairing of Zhikun Cai-Guang Qin Tian 21-31 in the semifinals.
Silver medallist at the World Masters Games held in New Zealand last year, the Dubai-based Sri Lankan Badminton star seems to be at the pinnacle of her career, though she won the last of her 5 National Singles titles more than 2 decades ago.
“I never officially retired from the sport, keeping myself fit by playing in tournaments when I moved to the UAE in 2011, and also involving in coaching,” said Sriyani who has been running her own academy, Deepika Badminton Academy for the past 4 years. She also participates in the ongoing Dubai Sports World Summer Camp.
“I highly appreciate the encouragement of the Badminton fraternity in the UAE, who wished me before every match with messages of support. This was a great source of inspiration for me to achieve success. I hope I could represent UAE in future international competitions,” said Deepika who played under the Sri Lanka flag.
“I hope my success will inspire more people to go for glory in these tournaments. There are many Indian veteran players in the UAE, who are highly skilled and fit to compete on the international circuit,” said the Sri Lankan star who has been regularly playing in the Seniors circuit of the Badminton World Federation from 2011, in Canada, Turkey, Sweden and India.
A technical official of the UAE Badminton Federation for the past 2 years, umpiring in every tournament held in the UAE, Deepika is not one to sit on her laurels and is already eyeing an Open tournament to be held in Sri Lanka in November, and another in Poland next year.
She is certainly on course to achieve her stated ambition of winning Gold at the World Masters Games in Kansai, Japan in 2021.