The finals of the Badminton Asia Youth under 16 Championships 2009 will resume today at 2.00 pm at the S. Thomas’ College Indoor Stadium in Mount Lavinia today.
The tournament is hosted for the first time in Sri Lanka. The tournament is being contested by Chinese Taipei, Hong Kong China, India, Iran, Iraq, Malaysia, Maldives, Nepal, Philippines, Singapore, Thailand and Sri Lanka.
In the girl’s team category Thailand managed to overcome their opponents Malaysia 2-1 in the finals. The number 1 seed Ratchanok Intanon outclassed her opponent 21-15, 21-07 for Thailand. For the Malaysians, Lim Yin Fun had to work hard to win 21-14, 15-21, and 21-16 to give them a chance by bringing the games level at one each. The Thai girls proved beyond doubt that they were the better team on the day by winning the girls’ doubles event 21-17, 21-11 to clinch the gold medal.
Sri Lanka led by Achini Rathnasiri managed to win the girl’s bronze medal for the first time in the history of Sri Lanka badminton.
The girl’s doubles final is an all Sri Lankan affair when Achini Rathnasiri and Upuli Samanthika Weerasinghe will meet their team mates Oshadie Kuruppu and Sushmita Illangakoon. Incidentally this is the very first time that two Sri Lankan teams have reached the finals in an international tournament.
The boys’ doubles event saw teams from Hong Kong China, Malaysia, Singapore and India reaching the Semi Final stage.
Number 1 seed Ratchanok Intanon of Thailand, Sindhu Pusarla Venkata of India, Meng Yean Lee of Malaysia and Maetanee Phattanaphitoon of Thailand reached the Semi final stage of the girls’ singles event while Indian Pratul Joshi, Malaysian Kian Meng Tan and the duo from Hong Kong China Chun Hei Reginald Lee and Ka Long Angus Ng made their way to the Semi Finals of the boys’ singles event. |