Badminton: National Championship 2018 from Monday

In the background of excellent performances at international level by our young Shuttlers, the 66th National Badminton Championship 2018 will get under way from Monday (29) at the Royal College Indoor Stadium Courts, Colombo 7. 

The tournament will end next Saturday (3).

To bring the standard of the tournament to be on par with international standards, Sri Lanka Badminton (SLB) will use synthetic court mats, introduce new rules to the championship such as making it mandatory for Shuttlers playing from quarter final level onwards, be attired in markedly different colours than their opponents'. 

It is mandatory for Doubles partners to wear similar attire, i.e. both T-shirts and shorts of the same colour, but different from their opponents'. 

SLB also intends to conduct a training programme for selected players from all provinces, to uplift the standards of provincial Shuttlers, during the national championship, conducted by national coach Tony Wahyudi. 

Over 1,000 competitors islandwide are expected to take part in this year's edition with Rs 750,000 at stake for the winners. 

At the recently concluded Youth Olympics, Hashini Ambalangodage won Gold medal in the International Mixed event, while at the Commonwealth Games Sachin Dias and Buwaneka Gunatilleke qualified to play in the semifinals and the same pair were in the semifinals at the Asian Games. 

SLB's present administrators are doing everything possible to uplift the standard of Badminton and, as a result, SLB was able to get the services of Indonesian Tony Wahyudi as national coach, who was instrumental to the success of our Shuttlers. 

Events: 

Boys & Girls, Singles & Doubles: Under (U)-13, U-15, U-17, U-19 Open Men & Women: Singles, Doubles & Mixed Doubles 
Men's Singles: Over (O)-35, O-40, O-50, O-55 
Women's Singles: O-40 
Men & Women Veterans Doubles: O-40 
Masters Doubles: O-50, O-55