Junior shuttlers claim 9 golds and 6 silver at South Asia Regional Meet
View(s):Reaching all five finals of the Under-17 and Under-15 categories, the Lankan youngsters outsmarted their counterparts from Pakistan, Nepal and the Maldives to reach all 10 finals from both categories, out of which five were all-Sri Lankan clashes.
They claimed gold medals in the Under-17 Men’s Singles, Women’s Singles, Doubles titles in Mixed and Women’s, while claiming a complete whitewash in the Under-15 category, claiming the golds in Men’s and Women’s Singles and the Doubles in Men’s, Women’s and Mixed.
The only final Sri Lanka failed to complete with success was the Under-17 Men’s Doubles, where Thejana Herath and Mihila Jayaweera had to contend with the silver medal after losing to Pakistani pair Fahad Ahamed and Kuzaima Shahzad in a closely contested game 1-2.
The losing Doubles pair took on each other in the Under-17 Men’s Singles final, where Thejana Herath claimed the gold outsmarting Mihila Jayaweera 2-1 to push his teammate to a silver finish.
Nethmi Ratnayake won the gold medal with a straight win in the Under-17 Women’s Singles against Luckshana Kumar, who settled in with the silver medal.
Nethmi Ratnayake and Luckshana Kumar paired up to defeat Pakistani pair Roshany Ihsan and Samha Naveed to claim the Under-17 Women’s Doubles gold medal.
Later on Mihila Jayaweera and Nethmi Ratnayake teamed up to beat their compatriots Thejana Herath and Luckshana Kumar in the Under-17 Mixed Doubles in straight sets to gain a gold and silver finish.
Amavan Amarasinghe recorded a straight win against Pakistan player Abdul Haseeb in the Under-15 Men’s Singles to claim the gold medal while Benuri Vidyathilaka claimed the gold medal in the Under-15 Women’s Singles, after recording a 2-1 win against team mate Thenuki de Silva, who settled in with the silver medal.
Amavan Amarasinghe and Chenal Madapathage paired up to defeat Shahzain Malik and Muhammad Reyan of Pakistan in straight sets to win the Under-15 Men’s Doubles gold as Thenuki de Silva and Benuri Vidyathilaka claimed the gold medal in the Under-15 Women’s Doubles after a straight win against Maham Zia and Romysa Faisal in a one-sided battle.
Amavan Amarasinghe gained his gold hat-trick after pairing up with Thenuki de Silva to win the Under-15 Mixed Doubles, defeating fellow teammates Chenal Madapathage and Benuri Vidyathilaka 2-1 after a close contest.