Carrom: Youngsters struggle against experienced players at Grand Slam

Again the younger set of players gave some anxious moments for the experienced carrom players but since each player had to play seven matches at the Grand Slam Carrom tournament 2015 kicked off at the Carrom Federation Headquarters over last weekend the youngsters found it difficult to cope with the experienced lot as the veterans were able to reach the semi-finals and finals.   16 ranked players both in the men’s and women’s took part in this highly contested tournament and as expected in the Men’s and Women’s events Chamil Cooray won easily and comfortably over Nishantha Fernando although the game went to 3 sets and Joseph Roshita had an easy passage over Chalani Lakmali to clinch the championships.   It was interesting to note that the younger set of players showing vast improvements right throughout at the carrom tournaments so far.   In this tournament Minsadi Laknara (No.10) beat Madushika Kanchanamala (No.3), Arosha Wickremasinghe (No.4) was beaten by Pavani Yasoda (No.16) while No. 6 and 7 ranked players Detuni Nomaya and Buddhini Dias were beaten by Kusalya Vidanagama (No.12) in the Girls’ segment while Mohomed Saheed (No.3) lost to M. Sheriffdeen (No.11) and Dimal Senaratne (No.6) in the preliminary rounds in the Men’s segment.   The next event in the 2015 carrom calendar will be the 15th Junior National Carrom Championship for boys/girls in the under 13, 15, 17, 19 and 21 years with doubles finals for under 17 and 19 boys/girls to be worked-off on March 6 and 7.   Results:   Men’s   Quarter-finals: (1) Chamil Cooray beat M.F.M. Fakir 25/13, 25/16; (2) Udesh Chandima beat Dinal Senaratne 25/21, 25/21; (3) M. Sheriffdeen beat Anas Ahamed 25/16, 25/00; (4) Nishantha Fernando beat Viraj Fernando 25/2, 25/18.   Semi-finals: (1) Chamil Cooray beat M. Sheriffdeen 13/25, 25/23, 25/4; (2) Nishantha Fernando beat Dimal Senaratne 25/7, 25/16.   Final: Chamil Cooray beat Nishantha Fernando 25/2, 1/25, 25/5.   Women’s   Quarter-finals: (1) Joseph Roshita beat Lihini Angelica 24/25, 25/00, 25/7; (2) Arosha Wickremasinghe beat Kusalya Vidanagama 25/10, 25/15; (3) Pavani Yasoda beat Buddhini Dias 25/3, 24/25, 25/19; (4) Chalani Liyanage beat Madushika Kanchanamala 25/16, 25/5.   Semi-finals: Joseph Roshita beat Pavani Yasoda 25/1, 25/5 (2) Chalani Lakmali beat Arosha Wickremasinghe 25/5, 25/00.   Final: Joseph Roshita beat Chalani Lakmali 25/19, 25/2.